


Strumming on my Heart Strings

by TeenageMutantGingerNinja



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Ace!Newt, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Asexual Character, F/M, M/M, Newmas big bang, Newt's in a punk rock band, Thomas get's dragged along by Teresa to visit them backstage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 07:21:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 33,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5082826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeenageMutantGingerNinja/pseuds/TeenageMutantGingerNinja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If someone had told Newt that when his family moved to America he'd end up joining a band, he wouldn't have believed them.<br/>If that same person told him that at the start of their second state wide tour, he'd meet the one person that would turn his whole life upside down, he still wouldn't have believed them.<br/>He probably should have learnt to trust them by now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strumming on my Heart Strings

Being in a band was never something Newt had thought would happen in his life, but here he was, sat in a dressing room with his best friend, waiting to be interviewed for their second album release.

When Minho had proposed the idea back when they were in high school, Newt had thought he was joking. It was the type of thing that Minho did a lot though, so he wasn’t the only one; Gally had out right laughed in his face, telling him that there was no way in hell any of them would ever be good enough to be in a band. But Minho had pushed and soon all four of them were taking music lessons and it became apparent quite quickly that some of them were better at it than others.

Gally was god awful at singing, but he picked up the guitar faster than any of them and now he was quickly becoming one of the best guitarist’s in the business - or at least that's what he liked to tell people. Minho had wanted to be the front man, centre stage, belting out the lyrics to all the hit songs he planned on writing, which was a surprise to absolutely no one. However that plan fell fast too, when they found out Minho was not only a terrible singer, but a pretty bad writer too.

That’s where Newt came in; along with playing bass, he’d always loved writing and he had come up with the band’s first ever hit, which sent them flying up the charts faster than any of them had ever thought possible. In the space of four years, they’d gone from practicing in Minho’s garage to playing in front of hundreds of people as they toured all across the country.

That’s what they were here for now, their second tour was starting up in a few weeks and this interview was their last official press meeting before it really got started - and he was scared half to death.

Newt couldn’t wait for the tour to start, he loved being up on stage, but interviews? Not really his thing, in fact he hated them, didn't like people questioning his personal life when he really didn't want to talk about it. Minho didn't understand it, he loved the attention that the band brought them, but Newt wasn't like that, for him it was all about the music.

Which was why he was desperate to get up on stage so he could show people just what he could do, let the music do the talking and just be free from the questions for a few hours, do something that he really loved.

“You know, smiling is a thing you can do every once in a while, right?” Newt looked up from where he was leaning against the table in the centre of the room, head resting in his hands, to where his best friend and the band’s drummer, Minho, was lying down on the room’s only small sofa. He had his feet up on the armrest and was lying with his hands behind his head. Newt had thought he was asleep.

He wouldn’t have been able to blame him if he was, the journey down to the studio had taken them hours and Newt found it really hard to sleep on the tour bus; it rattled around too much and he could never get comfortable. Instead he’d been up most of the journey reading on his bunk above Alby’s, waiting for the vehicle to stop moving so he could finally get some rest.

He’d tried to get some sleep once they’d gotten to the studio, but with Minho staying in the dressing room with him it was practically impossible, since - even in sleep - he seemed to be incapable of sitting still for long enough not to disturb him. But Minho had finally settled down now, looking over at him with something akin to worry on his features, despite the joking nature of his question.

“You know I hate these things, Minho.” He answered, stifling a yawn as he sat up straighter in his chair. “I never know what I’m supposed to say.” The last interview they’d been invited too was over a month ago now and it hadn’t exactly gone all that well, Newt had spent most of it stumbling over his words in an attempt at figuring out what to say. It had been really embarrassing to say the least and afterwards he'd wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball on the tour bus and just disappear.

“Well, Sonya was checking up on some of the messages she’s gotten, and a lot of the fans find your awkwardness adorable.” Newt groaned, burying his head in his hands.

“I’m twenty, people shouldn’t find me adorable.”

“You’re acting as if that makes you old, Newt. Besides, you are kind of cute.” Minho laughed as Newt looked up to glare at him, sending him a wink which caused Newt sigh, resting his chin back on his hands.

For reasons Newt didn’t understand, him and Minho always seemed to get the most attention from the fans. Minho decided a long time ago it was because they were the best looking, but Newt figured he was mainly just talking about himself.

Minho was all wicked grins and strong arms, always making people laugh in interviews and above all that he loved interacting with the fans the most out of all of them. Newt looked at himself and all he saw was a tall, kind of scrawny guy who happened to be good at writing songs and wasn’t all that great when it came to talking to their fans - he didn’t really see where the appeal was in that.

“In all seriousness though, this is an important interview.” Minho pushed himself up so that he was sat cross-legged on the sofa, leaning forward against his knees. “We start the tour next week and this is our last chance at promoting it. This is a big deal for us, Newt.”

He knew that. Of _course_ he knew that, that’s why he was so nervous in the first place. They needed the tour to be a success if they wanted to expand it oversees and Newt wanted more than anything to be able to go back to his hometown in England and perform somewhere he felt like he belonged, make his family proud.

“I know, I know. I just don’t want to mess this up for everyone.” Minho patted the sofa next to him to come over; Newt rolled his eyes at the gesture but went anyway, sitting down on the sofa with a huff. Minho moved round so that he was now facing him and placed his hands on Newt shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes.

If Newt wasn't so worried about the interview he probably would have laughed at the intensity of that look, but as it was it only succeeded in making him more nervous as he sunk down a little in his seat, dropping his gaze from Minho's.

“You’re not going to mess up, you’ll be fine. Besides, if you do majorly fuck it up, we’ll all be there to fix it and then laugh about it later." Newt shot him a look at that, which Minho just ignored, carrying on with what Newt had learned a long time ago he deemed to be a ' _motivational speech'_.

"Everything’s going to be fine, I believe in you so quit worrying about it, you got that?” Newt let a small smile creep onto his face and nodded, Minho always knew how to make him feel better, even if sometimes he did go about it in a weird way.

Minho grinned and squeezed his shoulders before letting go, jumping up off the sofa. “That’s all I ask of you. Now let’s get out of here, we promised Alby we wouldn’t be late this time.” Newt reluctantly got up off the sofa and followed Minho out the room, grabbing his beanie off the table as he passed it, pulling it down over his ears as they left the small dressing room.

The TV studio they were in was huge, a maze of winding corridors and large rooms, shelves stacked high with filming equipment Newt didn’t have the slightest idea how to even _think_ about using. He’d always found these places interesting, the amount of people that worked there just to make one show had surprised him the first time they’d been, but by now he’d gotten used to the masses of people wandering around the studio and made a note to talk to some of them and get more of an idea about what they did.

As much as the studio fascinated him, the fact that they had a live studio audience this time round was making him a little nervous, so he made sure to keep an eye out for large groups of people who looked out of place; they’d gotten ambushed by fans at the last studio they went too and that wasn’t really something he wanted to happen again.

Newt was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost crashed into Minho, who'd stopped right in front of him. He stopped himself just inches from crashing into his back, taking a step back to steady himself. Minho was grinning at him over his shoulder, looking like he was trying to hold back a laugh.

"You good?" He asked and as Newt flipped him off his smile only got bigger. Minho shook his head and turned back to the door they'd stopped at, knocking hard three times.

Newt looked up at the sign on the door to see where they were and realised they were stood outside one of the other dressing rooms in the studio, the small sign underneath showed him that this one belonged to Gally and Alby.  

Newt leant back against the wall as they waited for it to open, Minho knocking on the door again a few seconds later when they didn't answer. Newt leant his head to the side to watch him as he stared impatiently at the door.

"You know they've probably gone down already, right?" Newt asked and Minho sighed in defeat, frowning.

"But we're early man, I thought we might have beat them this time." Newt huffed out a laugh at the disappointed look on Minho's face as he glared at the door before heading off back down the corridor, hands shoved in his pockets.

"Yeah well, our early and Alby's early are two entirely different things." Newt pointed out as he pushed himself off the wall, following after him.

Their first tour had been a bit of a nightmare to say the least, none of them knew what they were doing or how they were meant to act in front of the crowds, which had led to an awkward first few shows. The only saving grace in it all had been Alby, making sure they were all ready to get on stage, that they were confident in what they were doing.

It had been pretty strange at first, Alby bossing them all around; most of them had been eighteen at the time, Alby the oldest of them all at nearly twenty. Along with their manager Jorge, Alby took it on himself to be the adult of the group and Newt was incredibly glad for it, not wanting to be in charge himself and not really trusting Gally or Minho to take on the role just yet.

If anything it had meant he was able to focus more on making sure that his younger sister, and bands lead singer, Sonya was alright. She was only fifteen when the tour started and even though she was quite mature for her age, Newt had spent a lot of time during that first tour worrying about her.

Newt jumped and spun around when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked down to see Sonya grinning up at him. He let out a sigh of relief on seeing her, reaching out and hitting her gently on the arm for scaring him but of course she just laughed it off and bounced in between the two of them, easily matching their pace, coming to walk between the two of them.

Newt often forgot that she was only seventeen, acting much older than her age most of the time. She was still going to school and taking classes, all whilst touring round with the band and Newt was pretty impressed that she still managed to keep her grades up, what with the amount of band practice that they had.

That was one of the main reasons the tour was starting next week, rather than two months ago like their manager had wanted. Sonya only had one more exam left until she was done with school, and Newt had pushed for the tour dates to be moved to the summer so she'd have chance to work for them, do as best as she could. In the end, he'd managed to convince their manager that it was the best thing for the band and the tour was scheduled for a later date, much to Sonya's annoyance as she'd been hoping she might be able to bunk off her last few exams instead - but Newt knew he'd done the right thing.

“Ready to fuck up again on live TV, big brother?” She asked and Newt huffed in annoyance, pushing her hand away when she started to laugh at him. “Don’t worry about it, Newt. It wasn't that bad and I bet no one even remembers.” He kind of doubted that was true, but he appreciated the sentiment all the same.

"I already tried telling him that." Minho joined in, slowing down his pace to fall in step with them. "Apparently it's not helpful."

"Figures." She pushed a few strands of hair off her face, tucking them behind her ear. The three of them walked in silence for a few seconds, following the signs for the main stage before Sonya seemed to remember something, perking up a little. "Oh! Did you tell him about the messages? That was helpful right?"

Minho shook his head. "Said he was too old to be called adorable."

“I'm stood right here, you know that right?" Newt asked, nudging Sonya slightly to try and get her attention. "I can hear everything you're saying.” Sonya just rolled her eyes, ignoring him in favour of answering Minho instead.

"Well that's bullshit, he's the most adorable person I know." Minho let out a short laugh at that and Newt glared at him, but Minho just shrugged, picking up the pace to go and find the others.

Newt frowned after him and swatted Sonya's hand away when she reached up to ruffle the hair that was sticking out from under his hat. Sonya just grinned, looping her arm around his, pulling him along to the main stage where the interview was going to be taking place.

Back when the band was starting up they’d gotten a bit desperate for a singer; Alby had been their first choice and whilst he wasn’t actually that bad, he wasn’t exactly great either. Newt knew that he was an okay singer too, but playing bass and singing at the same time was something he'd always had trouble with doing, so they knew they needed to find someone to join the band, they just hadn't known who at the time.

One night when they were all over at Newt’s house trying to decide on a name for the band, they heard Sonya singing to herself downstairs in the kitchen. Minho had gotten them all to quieten down so he could listen, a grin spreading across his face as he got up and ran down the stairs, begging her to join.

Newt hadn’t been too thrilled by it at first and had tried to convince the rest of the band that they should stick with their original plan of auditioning people instead, but his ideas had fallen on deaf ears. All three of them had loved her voice and Gally and Alby joined Minho on asking her to join the band, at least until they could find someone else.

Newt may not have been too happy with the development at first, but now he was glad Sonya was with him. He didn’t know how long he’d have been able to cope with the stress of it all if she hadn’t been there to help him through it and slap him round the head when he was being a dick, which was more often than he'd like to admit.

Sonya pulled him to a stop once they reached the main stage, cut off from the crowd by just a thin curtain. Alby and Gally had already arrived, talking to the host up on the main set. Newt wasn't surprised in the slightest, when they hadn't been in the dressing room, up on set was definitely where he'd expected to find the two of them.

Sonya leant up so that she was more his height in order to whisper in his ear. "Bet you ten bucks Gally's telling her all about how starting the band was his idea."

Newt snorted out a laugh, he didn't doubt for a second that's what was happening. Gally liked to think the whole thing was his idea since he was the one to come up with the band's name, even though he’d been the least interested in starting the band in the first place. They let him have it though, they’d learnt that it was much easier than arguing with him about it.

Newt saw the moment that Alby noticed the three of them, his attention leaving the host as she spoke with Gally to smile at them, waving them over. Newt grabbed a bottle of water from the small table near the edge of the set, where Minho was picking around at the array of food that had been laid out for them. Newt took a long drink of the water and followed Sonya over to the main stage. He stepped up onto the threshold, weaving past the numerous cameras surrounding them to get over to where they were standing.

He could hear the people behind the curtain starting to pour in, their excited chatter echoing around the room. Newt was glad for the curtain separating them from the crowd, giving them more of a sense of privacy, unlike some places they'd been before which had left them completely exposed as soon as they set foot on the set.

Alby clasped a hand on his shoulder once he reached him, pulling him away from the others towards the sofas set up ready for them. His happy demeanour dropped a little when they were far enough away from the others that they wouldn't be overheard, a small frown forming.

"Did you get any sleep before you came down?" Newt shook his head, fiddling with the bottle of water in his hands. He wasn’t surprised that Alby had brought it up; being the oldest in the band - even if that was only by a year or so - he was always checking up on them, sometimes acting more like a father figure than a friend. Not that Newt minded anymore, it was actually kind of nice that he felt the need to look after them all when they were on tour, Sonya more so than any of them.

Alby didn’t look too impressed with him now though, dropping his hand from Newt’s shoulder so that he could fold his arms across his chest, sitting down against the arm of the sofa. "Newt, you said you'd try, you didn't sleep at all on the way here."

"I _did_ try." Newt stated, but Alby just raised his eyebrows, obviously not believing him. "Look, it's easier said than done when Minho's incapable of sitting still for five bloody seconds." Alby glanced over at Minho and shook his head, the traces of a smile returning.

"I don't understand how he has so much energy." Newt followed his gaze over to Minho at Alby’s comment, who was laughing with Sonya on the other side of the set as they made faces at Gally from behind his head.

"You and me both." The noises from the other side of the curtains were growing louder, the sounds of people talking and laughing starting to drown out the noises on set, making Newt’s chest tighten a little in anticipation.

Newt didn't understand what it was that scared him about interviews, he was in front of a fraction of the amount of people as when he was on stage, but the eyes that were on him as he had to answer questions panicked him more than those of a crowded arena ever would. His worry must have been showing on his face because he felt Alby's hand on his arm, squeezing it gently to draw his attention back over.

"You sure you've got this? You can always back out and stand off to the side, I'm sure they won't mind." Newt shook his head, letting out a huff of air. It wouldn't be fair on the others if he were to back out of the show now, especially not when it was the last one before the tour. He could do this, what was there to really be scared of, right?

"No, I’m good. I can do this, it's the last one anyway, I'll be fine." Alby didn't look like he believed him and Newt wasn't even sure if he believed it himself, but Alby just nodded, dropping his hand from his arm.

"If you're sure?" Newt nodded, sending him a smile in the hopes that he'd drop it. Alby looked like he was about to say something else when he was cut off by Sonya calling them over. The host had left to go and talk to the camera crew and Gally had joined the others by the food table, the three of them looking at something on Sonya's phone.

Newt followed Alby over to the table, leaning over Sonya's shoulder so that he could get a look at what was going on. She lifted the phone up to show him something on her Twitter account, as he glanced over at it he saw it was a post about the interview.

"This good?" She asked, turning to face him as Newt read over the message quickly, nodding in response. Sonya and Minho had the biggest following on social media; since they were the band members that used them the most the group had decided that if they needed to post out any information, it would come from either of them so that it could reach the largest number of people.

“Okay good." Sonya responded, pulling the phone back so that she could see. "Because I wasn’t planning on changing it anyway.” She hit post on the message just as the host came over and joined them, her hands held together in front of her.

The woman was wearing a straight, white dress and jacket with her hair pulled back into a bun on top of her head. She stood taller than all of them in bright red heels that Newt thought looked like the most uncomfortable things in the world. He tried not to cringe at the smile on her face, it was so fake that it looked like it physically pained her to be talking to them, but it didn’t seem like it was going to falter any time soon so he just tried to ignore it.

“We’re going on air in three minutes, if I could ask you to make your way over to the sofas so we can get ready?” As she turned her back on them to go over to the centre of the set, Newt looked over at Minho who looked like he was also struggling to try and keep a straight face. When he caught Newt’s gaze he shot him a smile, trying to mimic that of the hosts along with her stiff posture and Newt had to stop himself from laughing, punching him in the arm as he went past to get to the sofas.

He sat down on the larger of the two that was furthest away from the host, but next to the arm next to the arm, so that he could have Minho and Sonya on his left on the other sofa, and Gally and Alby on his right. It made him feel a little bit calmer having the band surrounding him, but it did nothing to quench his nerves when the woman gestured to the man operating the curtains to open them, revealing the crowd of around two hundred or so people sat behind them.

Newt took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, tugging his beanie down a little lower on his head.

_Here goes nothing._

 

 ** _callmesonya:_** Stay tuned to WCKD TV for the chance to win backstage passes to the # _ScorchTour_ next week, the winner will be chosen at the end of the show!

 ** _newtisaacs, meanhoe, iamalby_** and **15,056** others liked this post

 

> **_bennyboy:_** Tell **@newtisaacs** not to throw up this time!
> 
> **_callmesonya:_** Already tried that, apparently it's not helping! # _rockstarhasstagefright_
> 
> * * *

If there was one thing that Thomas had learnt in the three weeks since his second year of university had ended, it was that his home town was not as fun as he remembered it being. He was actually finding himself missing having assignments to do, having spent his time off messing around on his computer most days - much like he was doing right now - YouTube hoping through videos he wasn’t actually all that interested in.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t have anything to do, it was just that he didn’t really have anyone to do those things with. All the friends he’d made when he was away at University lived at least three hours away, and the ones he’d left behind after high school he didn’t really feel like he knew anymore.

It was strange, how he'd gone from being best friends with people to practically strangers in the space of two short years. He'd thought he'd miss them when he left, but if he was being honest with himself he hadn't really thought about them until he'd gotten home over break, having too much to do whilst he was away.

Despite not having any friends back home, he'd made plenty when he was away at school, but mostly with his roommate Aris and Rachel - Aris' cousin - who was attending the same college as the both of them. Thomas hadn't gotten along with him too well when they'd first met - Aris had spent a lot of his time complaining about his work load and generally not being fun to be around - but around the middle of their first term he started to lighten up a little and Thomas found that the two of them got along really well.

He paused the video he was watching and was contemplating whether or not he should phone Aris to try and relieve his boredom when the door to his room swung open and hit the wall with a _thud_. Thomas jumped at the sound, whipping his head round to see what was going on just as his twin sister, Teresa, came running into the room and jumped up onto his bed, reaching over for his laptop to bring it over to her.

Thomas had gotten used to this sort of thing living with Teresa his whole life, she was more of an _act-first-ask-later_ kind of person. Not that he minded, it had gotten them into some pretty funny situation over the years and besides, he’d missed having her around for the past few months, even if he’d never actually admit it to her.

He lifted his hands in surrender as she tugged the laptop away from him, not so much as uttering a word as she closed his tabs and opened up a new one for herself, searching through google for a few seconds before opening up a live streaming website.

"Please, do come in, make yourself at home." Thomas gestured around his room and Teresa swatted at him, missing the mark by quite a few inches, causing Thomas to huff out a laugh, moving over so he could see what she was doing.

"Oh shut up, Tom, this is important." Thomas frowned as the video on the screen loaded, revealing it to be a morning talk show. Since when had Teresa started watching those?

"Really?” He asked, kind of confused about what she was doing. “This is what you’d call important?"

"Hey, I'm older, I call the shots around here." Teresa clicked play on the video and waited for it to buffer, tapping her fingers on her knee.

"By five minutes!" Teresa shot him a look, her eyebrows raised as if daring him to say something else. Thomas sighed, knowing better than to start a fight with her - especially one they'd had countless times already - and resigned himself to watching the show with her, it wasn’t as if he currently had anything better to do anyway.

He shuffled up the bed so that he was leaning up against the headrest and nudged Teresa’s leg with his foot to get her to do the same. She moved back to sit next to him, crossing her legs and pulling the laptop between the two of them so that they could both see the screen, just as the video started playing.

Teresa turned up the volume as the camera zoomed into the show’s host, a middle aged woman with blonde hair tied up in a tight bun on top of her head. Her smile seemed incredibly forced, as it she’d much rather be anywhere else than with whoever it was she was interviewing that morning - Thomas couldn't exactly blame her though, being up this early everyday couldn't be all that fun.

"Good morning and thank you all for tuning into WICKED TV. I’m Ava Paige and I'm here today with punk rock band _The Flare Infected_ to talk about the release of their second studio album, and the start of their state wide tour in just a week’s time." The camera zoomed out to show four guys and a girl, sitting across from her on a row of sofas, their expressions ranging from excited to downright uncomfortable as the audience watching them started cheering, the girl in the centre waving over at the crowd.

“Can you not just watch this downstairs?” Thomas asked. He’d never even heard of The Flare Infected before and didn’t really have any desire to learn more about them. Teresa didn’t even look at him as she answered, keeping her eyes glued on the screen.

"Dad's watching some car show on the TV downstairs and mums taking my laptop to do her work so no. Now shut up, I'm listening." Thomas rolled his eyes but turned his attention back to the screen, maybe he should just go downstairs and join his dad, it would probably be more interesting than this anyway.

The camera was back onto Ava again, who was turned in her chair so that she was facing the band, leaning forward to address them.

"So Minho, tell us, what's it like going back on tour again?" Thomas watched as the camera panned round to an Asian boy with jet black hair and strong arms, smiling at the host. He seemed to be waiting for the cheering to die down before he answered the question, so Thomas took the pause to glance over at Teresa as she sighed and rested her head on one of her hands, a small smile on her face.

_Well that makes more sense._

"You watching this for the band, or for him?" He asked, hoping to maybe get a rise out of her, but Teresa just shrugged, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Both." She answered and Thomas huffed out a laugh, turning his attention back to the boy - Minho - as he answered Ava’s question.

"It's strange actually, having so many people wanting to see us perform. It feels like only yesterday we were all playing in Gally's basement." Ava nodded, crossing one leg over the other before asking her next question.

"And in that short time you've accomplished so much, your debut single going straight to the top of the charts, did you ever expect such a huge reaction?" Minho looked over to his right, where the rest of his band mates were sat, to let one of them answer the question.

"Not in a million years." The camera panned over to a short, blonde haired girl who was sat next to him. She looked to be a few years younger than Minho, who Thomas figured was around his age, maybe a little bit older. "When the boys asked me to join the band I never expected it would actually lead to something, I thought it was just a way to let off some steam and have a bit of fun!"

Ava nodded at the girl’s reply. "Has it been hard, being the only girl in the band?" The girl let out a soft laugh at that, shaking her head.

"Not really, I've know these guys since before I can remember and besides." She looked over to her right, reaching out to put a hand on the shoulder of the boy next to her. "With Newt here with me there the whole time I knew nothing was gonna happen to me."

The camera moved over so that both Newt and the girl could be seen on the screen and Thomas felt his eyes widen a little at the sight. The boy was gorgeous, with long blonde hair poking out from beneath a red beanie. He had dark brown eyes and pale skin, a light blush dusting his cheeks in embarrassment at what had been said.

Thomas moved a little to mimic Teresa's position, leaning forward on his arms and watching the screen with more interest than he had before. He could see Teresa shooting him a knowing look from the corner of his eye but he ignored her, instead focusing more intently on the screen.

"Is it hard, focusing on the band but looking out for her at the same time?" Ava asked Newt, who glanced down at his hands before answering, his voice sounding much less confident than the other two.

"Not really, she's pretty good at taking care of herself these days." Thomas felt a small twinge in his chest as Newt spoke, not having expected the strong British accent to come from him, but it suited him and Thomas found himself wondering how he came to be in the states. "If anything, she's the one taking care of me." Thomas frowned a little bit at that, nudging Teresa to get her attention.

"So are they together then?" Thomas asked, his curiosity taking the better of him when a loud ' _aww_ ' could be heard from the studio audience.

"What Sonya and Newt?" Thomas nodded. _Sonya,_ so that was her name. "No they're brother and sister, well, Newt's adopted but you know, same thing."

Thomas didn't know why that news made him feel a little better, it wasn't as if he was ever going to meet Newt, no matter if he had a girlfriend or not and just because Sonya wasn’t dating him, didn’t mean someone else wasn’t.

As the interview went on, the other two members of the band, who were sharing a sofa with Newt, were introduced as Alby and Gally. Thomas didn’t have all that much interest in the two of them, or Sonya and Minho for that matter, most of his attention went to Newt, who looked like he’d much rather be anywhere else but there, no matter how hard he was trying not to show it.

Thomas didn’t really understand why he looked so uncomfortable, the guy was in a band for Christ’s sake, surely an interview in front of a hundred or so people would be nothing compared to performing to thousands? But nevertheless, when the questions weren’t being directed at him, Newt seemed to sink into the sofa a little, trying his best to keep out of view from the audience and Thomas wanted to know why that might have been. Maybe he could ask Teresa later?

Before long they were opening up the questions to the audience and Thomas wasn't at all surprised to see how most of them were being directed at either Newt or Minho, the two of them seemingly being the most popular band members.

The questions were ranging from ' _What are you most looking forward to about being back on tour?_ ' to _'What's your favourite song to perform live?'_ and Thomas wondered how often the five of them had been asked those same questions over and over, if it ever got repetitive. He guessed it probably did, since after five minutes of listening to the answers he was starting to grow a little bored of it.

“How long’s this got left?” He asked Teresa, hoping that maybe it would finish soon and he could get back to doing nothing in peace.

“I don’t know, I’m waiting.” She answered, annoyance clear in her voice.

“Waiting for what?” Teresa didn’t deem him worthy of an answer, just shushing him when the host spoke up again, addressing the audience.

“We can take one last question before we have to take a break, and then we can move on to what I’m sure most of the viewers at home have been waiting for.” Teresa dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone, opening up the call pad ready to dial as she watched the screen intently.

“What are you doing?” Thomas asked, but Teresa didn’t answer him, instead focusing her attention on the show, her fingers tapping against the side of her phone. “ _T_?” He pressed, causing Teresa to sigh and turn to him, giving up on listening to the questions with him talking over them all the time.

“There’s a chance to win two tickets to go to their concert next week, they were all sold out when I tried to buy some so I’m going to win them instead.” Thomas tried not to laugh at how determined she sounded. There were probably hundreds of people in the same situation as her, there was no way she was ever going to win the tickets.

“You know there’s basically no chance this is going to work, right?”  Teresa glared at him again, a sight that Thomas was now becoming very used to.

“Do you have to be so pessimistic about everything? Aris must be rubbing off on you.” She told him, just as a loud cheer erupted from the audience, drawing her attention back to the screen.

“After the break, the band is going to be choosing one lucky caller to win two backstage passes to the first stop of their upcoming tour next week. For your chance to win, call the number at the bottom of the screen _now_.” Teresa quickly typed in the number at the bottom of the screen, double checked she’d typed it right before hitting call and putting the phone on speaker.

Thomas reached over to the laptop and hit mute as the phone started ringing, the two of them sitting in silence to wait and see if it would get picked up. Teresa was fiddling with her hair as she stared at the phone and Thomas couldn’t help but find it a little funny how worked up she was getting about a pair of concert tickets.

He was starting to think that the ringing was going to last forever and was about to suggest that Teresa should just hang up and try again when it suddenly stopped and a crackly, male voice came over the line.

“Congratulations! You are one of the ten people in with the chance of winning backstage passes to see The Flare Infected live at their Scorch tour, can I take your name please?” Teresa didn’t answer straight away, her eyes widening in shock as she looked up at Thomas, a huge grin on her face. Thomas couldn’t stop himself from smiling back, her suddenly happy demeanour becoming infectious.

“Hello?” The voice sounded from the phone again and Teresa snapped out of it, pulling the phone closer to her to answer him.

“Yes, sorry, my names Teresa Agnes?” Thomas was kind of in shock that she'd even gotten through at all, he'd have to take back what he'd said earlier, maybe it was possible to win with these things.

“Okay Teresa, if you can just stay on the line until after the ad break and you’ll find out whether or not you’ve won.”

“I can do that, thank you!” There was a loud beep on the line with caused Thomas to cringe a little and lean away from the sound, but it soon stopped and was replaced by a sound Thomas could only describe as elevator music, probably one of the most annoying sounds in the world; he really hoped it wouldn't be lasting that long.

Teresa dropped her phone on the bed and jumped up, letting out a high pitched squeal as she span around and this time Thomas couldn't hold back his laughter, throwing one of his pillows at her to get her to stop. She caught the pillow and hugged it against her chest, plonking herself back down on the bed.

"Did that really just happen?" She asked, disbelief clear in her voice as she stared down at her phone. Thomas nodded slowly, eyes flicking between the phone and her.

"That really just happened."  Thomas decided on, frowning at the phone in confusion, still a little amazed that it had actually happened. Teresa’s excitement seemed to turn quite quickly into a smug smile as she nudged him in the leg with her foot to get his attention back on her.

"See, I _told_ you I'd win." Thomas rolled his eyes at that, moving to lean back up against the headrest of his bed.

"You haven't won yet, they said there were ten people on hold, T." Thomas’ pessimism didn’t seem to faze her though, the smile on her face still as big as ever.  

"Still, admit it, you were wrong.” Teresa pressed and Thomas sighed, shaking his head in defeat.

“Okay fine, I was wrong, happy?”

“Very!” Thomas glared at her but it just seemed to make Teresa happier. He didn’t get chance to reply because suddenly the music cut off and the crackly voice came back over the phone. Teresa picked the phone back up off her bed, holding it up closer to her so that she could hear better.

“Are you still there, Teresa?” Teresa nodded towards the phone, frowning slightly a few seconds as she seemed to realise what she was doing at the same time as Thomas did, quickly answering the guy.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m here.” She replied, coughing to clear her throat when her voice came out all high pitched.

“The show’s going to come back in just one minute and Ava is going to ask the band members to pick a line number from one to ten. You’re on line seven, so if they pick that number, you can answer, any other and the lines going to get cut off, you got that?”

“Loud and clear.” Thomas could see she was staring to get a little nervous now, her knee jumping up and down from where she sat cross legged on the bed, her right hand fiddling with her hair.

“Well okay then, I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you!” Teresa replied and the man left again, just as the adverts finished and the show came back on air. Thomas leant over to the laptop and turned it off mute, turning the sound up a bit so that they could be sure to hear them properly.

Thomas was half expecting them to draw the whole thing out, ask the band a few more questions before they got to the people on the phones, but Ava dived straight into it, smiling her fake smile straight into the camera.

"Hello and welcome back to WICKED TV. We currently have ten callers on the line each with the chance of winning two backstage passes to The Flare Infected’s ‘Scorch Tour’ next week and it’s up to the band to choose which of them will be the winner.” Ava turned her attention from the camera back to the band, the picture moving so that all five band members could be seen on the screen. “So, which one of you would like to choose?”

Minho leant forward in his seat so that he could see the rest of his band members and raised his eyebrows, seemingly questioning them to see who was going to pick the winner. When none of them spoke up, Ava decided to choose for herself.  

"Newt, you want to do the honours?" Newt looked a little shocked to have been picked, sitting up straighter in his seat and snapping his gaze over to her.

"Line seven?" Now it was Thomas’ turn to be shocked, turning to look at Teresa as a gasp escaped her lips, her hand covering her mouth as she stared wide eyed at the screen.

Ava turned her attention back to the camera when Newt answered, and when she spoke the sound seemed to echo as it came from both the laptop speakers and from Teresa’s phone.

"We should have a caller on line 7, Teresa Agnes?" Thomas watched as Teresa tried to hold back a squeal as she silently jumped up in excitement, turning the phone off speaker to hold it up to her ear, dropping the pillow back down onto the bed.

"Yeah, that's me!" Thomas probably would have laughed at her excitement if he hadn’t been worried about being heard on the TV, Teresa’s voice coming out of the speakers just a second later than she answered through the phone.

Alby answered her, taking away the pressure from Newt, who seemed immensely grateful that the spotlight had been taken off him, letting out a short sigh of relief.

"Congratulations, Teresa! Those backstage passes are all yours.”

"Just like that?" Teresa asked and Alby let out a short laugh, nodding at the camera. Teresa turned to Thomas, hand covering the phone as she mouthed _‘oh my god’_ at him, a huge grin on her face.

"Just like that."

"Thank you so much! Oh wow, I don't know what to say, thanks for choosing my line, Newt." Thomas turned his attention back to the screen just as Newt looked directly into the camera, a small smile on his face as he addressed Teresa.

"No problem, we look forward to meeting you!" Suddenly there was a loud beep from the phone and Thomas' attention was turned back to Teresa. The phone line seemed to get switched and the guy with the crackly voice was back, sounding a little more enthusiastic than he had before.

"You still there Teresa?"

"Yeah i'm here." She started nodding at the phone again as she answered, but Thomas was too excited for her to bother making fun of her again.

"Awesome, we're just going to need to take some details from you so we can send over the passes, you good to do that now?"

"Definitely." Teresa and the guy spent another ten minutes on the phone, but she’d taken it off speaker to get a better sound so Thomas wasn’t entirely sure what they were talking about. Somewhere along the line she passed on their address and her phone number and then it was all over and she hung up, staring at her phone in shock.

A long moment of silence followed. "Holy shit." she said, looking up to meet Thomas' gaze. He let out a short laugh, shutting the lid of his laptop and pushing it out of the way.

"I know." He replied and a huge grin split across Teresa's face, rushing forward to pull him into a tight hug.

"Tom, holy shit!" Thomas just shook his head, hugging her back.

"You said that already."

Teresa patted him on the back once and pulled back, lying back on his bed and landing with a huff.

"I know but like... Holy shit!" Thomas started laughing fully and Teresa reached out to hit him with his pillow again, but soon she was laughing too and Thomas wasn’t sure he'd ever actually seen her so excited before.

 

 ** _teresaagnes:_** Guess who just won backstage passes to The Flare Infected's _#ScorchTour_ next week? Holy shit!

 ** _tomiswckd, thelastairbrenda_** and **42** others liked this post

 

> **_thelastairbrenda_** **:** You know how i'm your best friend and you definitely want to let me come along as your plus one?
> 
> **_teresaagnes: @thelastairbrenda_** Obviously, B. Who else would I take with me, Thomas?
> 
> **_tomiswckd: @teresaagnes_** Rude. You never know, I could be way more fun than Brenda
> 
> **_queenrachel: @tomiswckd_** That's not very likely though, is it Thomas?
> 
> **_teresaagnes: @tomiswckd @queenrachel_** So true! I like your friend Tom, you should introduce us
> 
> **_tomiswckd: @queenrachel @teresaagnes_** You both suck, you're never meeting
> 
> * * *

Newt was glad to be back on the tour bus, heading home for the last time before the start of the tour in just a week's time. The interview had gone better than he’d expected, even though he had gotten a little flustered when Ava had asked him to choose the winner for the contest. He hoped that he’d picked well, he wasn’t all that good around their younger fans, so hopefully this Teresa girl was around their age, or at least Sonya’s.

Newt was currently up in his bunk towards the back of the bus, trying his best to get some sleep, but every time the bus rolled to a stop in traffic or hit a pothole he was jolted awake again, much to his annoyance. After half an hour of trying - and failing - to fall asleep he gave up, jumping down off his bunk and heading towards the back of the bus in the hopes of finding someone to talk to.

When he got to the sofas that circled the back of the bus he expected to see the others, but there was no one there, just Gally’s guitar laying on top of them. He figured the must be at the other end of the bus talking to their manager, Jorge, so he went back to his bunk, fished his notebook out from under the mattress and grabbed the guitar off the sofa, sitting down to fiddle with the tuning pegs and make sure the sound was right.

He’d gotten Gally to teach him a bit of guitar over the years, since he needed to be able to play some chords to help him when writing songs. It had taken him a while to pick it up but now he wasn’t half bad, although nowhere near up to Gally and Alby’s standards.

Newt enjoyed writing songs, it was a good way to get his thoughts across to people and he'd always found it kind of relaxing, helping him to calm down a little after the interview.

He knew it was stupid, reacting like that when he could get up on stage in front of thousands of people no problem, but as soon as there was a camera in his face and people started asking him questions - sometimes really personal things - he just closed up. Minho always tried telling him that he had nothing to worry about but it was just strange having people know about his personal life - it was personal for a reason and he preferred it to stay that way.

Newt flicked through the pages of his notebook, past song lyrics and chord patterns until he reached his most recent one towards the back of the book and got to work. He played through what he had already, singing the lyrics under his breath and tried to continue from there, writing down any ideas he had between breaks.

He wasn't sure how long he was back there by himself for before Sonya came and plonked herself down on the sofa next to him, handing him a bottle of water which he took with a small thanks.

"What’re you working on?" She asked, grabbing the notebook from the small table in front of him to look over the song, reading over the lyrics. Newt shrugged, taking a swig of the water.

"I'm just messing around with some stuff." Sonya turned to him, a smile on her face as she folded her legs up underneath her on the sofa.

"Can I hear?” Sonya always liked to be the first one to hear the new songs, telling the others that is was her _‘sibling privilege’_ and if Newt was being honest, he valued her opinion of the songs a little more than any of the others’, which was why he liked to have them finished properly before he showed her.

"It's not really any good yet." Newt tried, but Sonya protested anyway - he figured he should have known better by now than to argue with her on things like this.

"Please? I really want to hear it." Newt huffed out a breath and reached out for the notebook which Sonya moved so that they could both see the pages. He put the pencil he’d been using behind his ear and moved the guitar slightly on his lap, positioning his fingers on the strings before he started playing.

He’d been over the tune so many times now that he knew it off by heart, not really needing to look over at the notes in Sonya’s hand, but he did every so often anyway just to make sure he was doing it right. He could see Sonya nodding her head along with the music out the corner of his eye, following along with the messy writing in the book and a small smile spread across his face, glad to see that she seemed to like it so far.

Newt played through the main riff once so that Sonya could get the hang of the tune, knowing from experience that she’d want to sing along with him to try the song out. When Sonya started singing Newt tried not to cringe - not because of her voice, which was annoyingly great - he just never liked it when he heard his own song coming from someone else’s lips for the first time, a little nervous about how it would be received.

Logically he knew he must be an okay writer, people actually paid to come and hear the band perform the songs that he'd written, but there was always that shred of doubt when he showed the band a new song, worried that maybe he'd have lost his touch. But Sonya seemed to like it, tapping her foot on the floor as she tried to sing along.

Newt wasn’t really sure how long they'd been there, but when he looked up from the strings they'd gathered a small audience. Minho and Alby were standing over on the other side of the small seating area, as well as Jorge who - when Newt glances over at him - was nodding appreciatively, each of them listening intently to the song.

Once they got to the end of the song Newt slowly faded it out, leaning his arms against the top of the guitar once he'd finished, tapping his fingers against the wood to try and calm his nerves. He wasn’t really sure what it was he was nervous about because Sonya is grinning at him and the others look like they at least enjoyed it.

"Newt, this is brilliant!" Sonya exclaimed, putting the notebook down on the table.

"I mean, it's not finished yet but-" Minho rolled his eyes and picked the notebook up from the table as he came to join them, sitting down next to Newt to look over it.

"Are you ever going to learn to take a compliment?" He asked and Newt huffed out a laugh, putting the guitar down on the table out of the way.

"They're right though, Newt." Alby added, leaning back against the wall of the bus. "That was really good, when you're done we should add it to the set." Newt pondered this for a second, and he couldn't help but think that might actually be a good idea, the fans would probably love being the first ones to hear a new song. Also, they could get a proper reaction from it.

Maybe Alby was onto something.

"Are we even allowed to do that?" Newt posed his question to Jorge, wondering whether or not it was too late to tinker with the set list a little. It wasn’t like bands hadn’t switched up their set lists before, adding something in at the last minute, but they’d spent so long picking the perfect order to perform in that Newt wondered whether or not they’d even be allowed to do it.

He remembered from the last tour how stressed Jorge had gotten over their inability to decide which songs they wanted to play, so Newt took him not answering for a while as a no, but after thinking about it Jorge just shrugged, crossing his arms against his chest.

"I don't see why not, give them a little surprise in the middle.” Newt glanced over at Sonya to see what she thought. She was usually one for sticking with their plans, not liking to switch it up too much.

"I guess we can try it out on the first night.” She decided after a few seconds of consideration. “If the fans hate it we can just take it back out, go to the original set list." Newt nodded in agreement. There was no harm in giving it a go and it’d be easy to take it out later if they didn’t like it and just go back to the original set list.

“You should keep it acoustic though.” Jorge suggested, which surprised him. “Just the two of you, I think it’d sound best that way." Newt frowned at that, keeping it acoustic? It wasn’t exactly in fitting with the style of their other music so he wasn’t all too sure how the fans would take to it if they kept it in that format.

“You sure?” Newt asked, “Won’t it sound a little odd compared with everything else?” But no one else seemed to be sharing his concerns about it, Jorge just shrugging.  

“We don’t have time now to get it ready to be performed any other way, so if you really want to play it at the show next week, then acoustic’s the way it’s going to have to be.” Newt figured he had a point, there was no way he’d be able to get the song ready to play with the whole band in a week, let alone have everyone look over it and have it performance ready, it just wasn’t going to happen.

Maybe having an acoustic session in the middle could be fun, it would be a good way to relax a little in the middle of the concert, give everyone a bit of a rest before they went into the second half of the set.

Newt pulled his legs up so he was sat cross legged on the sofa, leaning forward a little on his arms. “I’m up for it if you are?” He directed his question at Sonya who just shrugged, leaning back against the sofa.

“The songs great Newt, of course I’m up for it.” Sonya smiled, looking past Newt’s back over at Minho. “You going to be okay with the break? It won’t _‘interrupt your flow’_ or anything?” Minho just glared at her, reaching over to shove her arm, which just caused Sonya to laugh, tipping her over so she ended up laying down on the sofa, feet pressed up against Newt’s side.

There was an incident back on their first tour that Minho really didn’t like being reminded about, but the rest of them liked to tease him about from time to time.

There’d been a lighting issue mid-way through one of their sets and they had to stop for a few minutes between songs. Newt was still pretty sure the crowd hadn’t noticed, since they just tried to play it off as something that was supposed to happen, talking with them for a bit until the lighting crew got everything sorted, but the whole thing had really thrown Minho off, much to everyone's surprise.

For the rest of the concert he made little slip ups, playing too fast or too slow, coming in just a bit too soon, nothing majorly bad but he’d been pretty pissed off, blaming the break for interrupting his flow, as he liked to call it.

At the time they hadn’t found it all that funny, worried that they’d ruined the concert for the fans but it had mostly gone okay in the end so instead of letting Minho worry about it, they’d just turned it into a joke instead, one that made Minho regret ever saying anything about it.

“You shanks can have your little acoustic song, I’ll still be the one rocking this concert, just you wait.” Minho jabbed a finger at Newt’s shoulder and got up off the sofa, “But enough of that, I don’t know about you guys but I’m starving, do you think anywhere will still be doing breakfast?”

“Min, it’s half nine in the morning.” Newt told him as he too got up off the sofa, following Minho down to the other end of the bus. “I’m pretty sure most places do breakfast then.” He could hear someone groan from behind him, and turned to see Alby following them, one hand scratching at the back of his neck.

“Next time I suggest booking a morning show, please tell me it’s a stupid idea, it’s too damn early.”  

“I did tell you it was a stupid idea.” Gally piped up from the front of the bus, spinning round in his chair next to the driver, Ben, to face them as they came to join him. “You just told me to quit being so pessimistic.”

“That’s because you’re always pessimistic about _everything_.” Minho added, leaning up against the wall behind Ben’s seat. He reached forward and gave Ben a high-five when he snorted out a short laugh, Gally rolling his eyes at the two of them and turning his attention back to Newt and Alby who were stood in the small hallway of the bus.

“What was that you were playing back there? Don’t think I’ve heard that one before.” Newt was always kind of unsure when showing Gally his songs, he was the most unpredictable in his opinions about them. There were a lot that he’d written that had been thrown out just because Gally didn’t like them, ones that Newt had been proud of but had never quite made the cut.

It was annoying to say the least, but Newt wasn’t about to force something on him that he didn’t want to play. They were a band after all, they were meant to make decisions about the music they played _together_ , that was the whole point. Maybe Gally was a bit difficult about things sometimes, but that was just how he was and after knowing him for eight years, you sort of started to get used to it.

“New song I wrote.” Newt told him, shrugging. “We’re adding it to the set.” Gally frowned, leaning forward a bit in his seat.

“But we already have the set down, how are we supposed to learn a new song in a _week_?” Now this Newt definitely wasn’t surprised about, if Sonya was one for sticking to the rules then Gally was way worse, not liking it when something was changed without him having a say in what was going on first.

Not that this really affected him, if it was a song they would all have to learn then Newt would have understood his annoyance, but this really didn’t have all that much to do with him. If anything he’d get a break for a few minutes, surely that was preferable to what the set was like currently?

“ _We’re_ not. I’m playing it with Sonya, _you_ don’t have to do anything.” But Gally still didn’t seem convinced, looking round at the three of them just as Newt heard footsteps and turned to see Sonya heading down the bus join them, Jorge staying behind on the phone at the back.

“Shouldn't we all get a say in this?” Gally asked, not really posing his question to anyone in particular. Newt turned back to the rest of them, moving to sit down on the only other available seat up front and pulled his feet up onto the chair. He really wasn’t in the mood to argue with him today, hungry and much too tired to be bothered with it so he didn’t answer, letting one of the others answer his question instead.

“If we put it to a vote, then you’d be the only one against it, Gally.” Minho told him, crossing his arms against his chest. Gally must have realised he was right because he paused for a bit, as if searching for a reason to convince them it was a bad idea.

“But what about-?”

“Come on, Gal, it’ll be fine!” Sonya told him, cutting him off as she passed Newt in order to stand next to Minho. “Jorge’s already phoning the rest of the crew about it, it’s getting sorted as we speak. You’ve got nothing to worry about, okay?” Gally huffed out a sigh, spinning his chair back to face the road.

“Fine, but I’m not happy about it.” For some reason Sonya was one of the only people he actually listened too, but that seemed to be the same for most of the band members. Even if sometimes they didn’t get along, the five of them had become something of a family and despite Sonya being the youngest, they all listened to her. Newt didn’t really get it, but right then he wasn’t about to complain, just glad that she’d gotten Gally to back down about it - at least for now.

“You never are.” Minho muttered to himself, just loud enough for Newt to hear from where he sat off to his left. “But anyway.” he spoke louder this time, moving to lean with his arms crossed against the back of Ben’s chair. “That’s not what we came down here to talk about, you want to pull in somewhere and we can stop for food?”

“There’s a truck stop coming up in five miles, we can stop off there if you want, grab something to eat.” Minho grinned and patted Ben’s shoulders, Ben just shook his head in amusement, waving a hand behind him to get Minho to back away. He did, moving back to his original position against the wall, but no less excited about the prospect of getting something to eat.

“See, this is why you’re my favourite.” Newt rolled his eyes and settled more into the chair, leaning his head against the back of it and watching the world pass outside the windows as the others went elsewhere, probably going to look for some money to go and buy the food, rummaging around in the boxes on the bus.

There were three problems that came about when driving around on a tour bus, none of which Newt had gotten used too, and he doubted the others had either:

  1. Their faces were plastered on the sides with the band's logo right underneath, Minho had thought it would be a great idea at the time but honestly? It was just kind of embarrassing
  2. Even though it was quite big, it held a lot of stuff _and_ seven people when Jorge was with them too so it could get quite cramped at times
  3. It was the least conspicuous thing Newt had ever laid eyes on, so trying to go unseen was practically impossible.



That was why they limited their breaks whilst on the road to truck stops, at least then they could park among all the other large vehicles and they could have a chance at staying out of sight.

It wasn’t that Newt didn’t like it when he was spotted when out and about by fans, it was actually pretty flattering that they enjoyed their music enough to want to talk to him, but sometimes it could get a little much and any way to find some sort of privacy was always nice in those situations.

A few minutes later Ben took a left turn off the main motorway and they pulled into a large car park, past a quiet looking diner and gas station. Newt rubbed at his eyes to try and wake himself up a bit and pushed himself out of the chair, moving over to the door just as Ben parked in between two large trucks.

Ben reached over and pressed a button on the controls and the door slid open, a gust of cool air hitting him despite the warmth of the day. Newt was glad for it, the cold helping to wake him up a bit as he hopped down out of the bus, stretching his arms up above his head to try and stretch his back a little now that he had the space to do so.

He let out a short yelp when Minho jumped off the bus, reaching out to tickle his exposed stomach when he reached the ground. Newt made a move to hit him in retaliation but Alby came and stood between them, pushing them both away from the bus doors and towards the diner.

“I do not have the patience to deal with you two right now.” Minho shot him a cocky smirk so Newt reached over and punched him in the arm anyway. Newt half expected Alby to start yelling at them to be responsible like he usually did but he just let out a sigh, shoving past the two of them and opening the doors to the diner.

As soon as Newt stepped through the threshold of the building he was hit with a scent of freshly made coffee and bacon, his stomach growling loudly almost instantly - he hadn't realised just how hungry he actually was and if he hadn't woken up a bit already, that definitely helped.

Alby found them an empty booth on the far side of the diner and slid across to the end of the seats, Newt joined him - Minho, Sonya and Gally sitting across from them on the other side of the table.

“Oh wow, that looks amazing.” Newt turned round in his seat at Minho’s comment, spotting the waiter walking past with a plate stacked high with waffles and bacon. Newt made a noise of agreement and turned back round in his seat, grabbing a menu from the end of the table.

“Why don’t you get one then?” Gally asked, flicking through his own menu.

“He’s on a diet.” Newt told him, not bothering to look up from the menu, instead reading down the list to find what he wanted. His eyes fell on image of a stack of pancakes on the bottom of the menu and he smiled to himself, stopping for breakfast here was definitely a good idea.

“When are you _not_ on a diet?” Sonya asked Minho and Newt huffed out a laugh, closing the menu and passing it over to her side of the table.

It was kind of true though, out of all of them Minho was the most health conscious, going out running most mornings when he could and trying to make sure that they all ate healthily. Not that it worked most of the time, Newt could never really be bothered with it and the times Minho would drag him along to the gym were probably some of his least enjoyable memories.

“Hey! It’s working, isn’t it? I look amazing.” Minho stated and both Newt and Sonya started laughing just as the waiter reached their table, stopping Minho from being able to reply.

“Can I get you guys anything?” He asked and Newt glanced up at him, coughing a little to try and calm down his laughter. The guy’s name tag read that his name was Frypan and it got Newt to wondering whether that was a joke name because of where he worked or if he was really called that, either way it was a little odd, maybe it was a nickname?

Not that he really had a leg to stand on, he realised, he was called _Newt_ after all.

Newt rattled off his order to him - getting a coffee and a large stack of pancakes with maple syrup - and the others followed suit, Frypan listing them all down on a small notepad before heading back off to the kitchens with their order. As soon as he left their conversation started up again, Newt reaching round the table to pile up everyone's menu’s again so that they were out of the way for when the food got there.

Somewhere along the line they got to talking about the interview and along with the interview, the backstage passes that they’d just given away to some random stranger and their friend. Newt wasn’t too worried about it, whoever Teresa was she’d sounded nice enough over the phone, he just hoped he hadn’t made a bad choice.

“What do we actually do with them once they get there?” Newt asked, the thought suddenly coming to him. They hadn’t actually discussed it yet and with the tour starting up in just six days he figured they should probably have at least some idea as to what was happening with the ticket winners.

“You know, we probably should have thought about this before we picked a winner, right?” Alby stated and Newt nodded in agreement, that probably would have been a better idea than leaving it this late. Minho didn’t seem to think so though, leaning forward on the table to give his opinion.

“How hard can it be? Just show them round back stage and then they can come chill in the dressing room with us before the show.”

“But what if they’re weird?” Gally asked and Newt looked over at him to see he actually looked pretty concerned about that being a possibility. “What do we do then?” Newt hadn’t really thought about that happening, surely no one was going to be too weird, right? A little excited maybe, but nothing the five of them wouldn’t be able to handle together.

“Try to pretend they’re not and deal with it.” Sonya stated matter of factly, “We invited them, so you’ve got to play nice.”

“Yeah and you can just blame Newt later.” Minho added and Newt snapped his gaze over to him, frowning.

“Why is it my fault that they’re weird?” Minho shrugged, picking up the fork he’d been messing around with to point at him, waving it around as he spoke.

“You picked them, the blame falls on you if they’re crazy.”

“If anything the blame should fall on Son, it was her idea.” Newt argued, which caused Minho to pause, glancing over in Sonya’s direction.

None of the rest of them had even considered backstage passes as an option, not having had them at their last tour, but Sonya had brought it up a few months ago when they were sorting out the set list and no one could think of a reason why it was a bad idea, so they just went with it.

Since it was going to be their first time having people other than them and the crew backstage, they’d decided on giving out two for the first stop in a competition to see how it would be received and then, depending on how it went, give out some more at some of the other stops along the tour.

Looking back on it now, Newt realised how little they’d even thought about it, not just what they were going to do with them once they arrived, but the whole logistics of it. Where were they meant to be meeting them? What time? How long were they meant to be spending with them? Newt made a mental note to ask Jorge about it later when they got back to the bus, he’d probably know, he always seemed to know everything.

“Newt’s actually got a point,” Gally piped in, drawing Newt out of his thoughts and back into the conversation. “You did suggest it.” Newt was kind of surprised to see Gally coming to his defence, even on a small matter like this, usually the two of them were the ones who argued the most out of anyone in the band. Not that he didn’t like Gally, he did, just sometimes he was a little hard to get along with.

“And everyone agreed to it,” Sonya argued, sounding pretty annoyed by the whole conversation. “Quit trying to put the blame on me.”

“Yeah, but-” Minho started but Alby cut him off, shutting them all up with what they’d dubbed his _‘leader voice’_.

“They’re not going to be weird, it’s going to be fine, shut up arguing.” Minho let out a huff of air and dropped his knife back down on the table, leaning back down in his seat again, pouting like a little kid.  

Newt turned his attention away from Minho when he heard an amused laugh to his left, looking over to see Frypan had returned to their table with a tray of food. Newt perked up a little at that, sitting straighter in his seat as the smell of the food wafted over him, his stomach growling for the second time since they’d walked in.

“This happen a lot?” Frypan asked, his question seemingly directed at Alby, but Newt wasn’t paying all that much attention as Frypan placed the stack of pancakes on the table in front of him.

“You have no idea.” Alby told him, but there was a fondness in his voice that told Newt that he didn’t really mind it, they were still young after all, they were allowed to have their petty arguments from time to time.

“Well good luck sorting out… whatever that was all about, and enjoy the food!” Newt thanked him as he pulled the stack of pancakes over to himself, grabbing the maple syrup so that he could pour it over, practically drowning them in the process.

Newt cut into it and was about to eat a mouthful when he looked up to see Minho staring at him in disgust, his forkful of fruit raised halfway up to his mouth as he watched him.

“What?” Newt asked, confused as to what the problem was.

“I don’t understand how you can eat that, it looks disgusting.” Minho frowned down at the pancakes before shovelling the fruit into his mouth and Newt just shrugged.

“I don’t understand how you _can’t_. It's not disgusting.” He answered, taking a bite of the pancakes and letting out a pleased moan at the taste. “It’s beautiful.” He told him around a mouthful of food and tried not to laugh at the horrified looks both Gally and Sonya were giving him, instead going back to cutting himself some more food.

“ _You’re_ disgusting.” Sonya scoffed, kicking at Newt’s leg from under the table.

 

 ** _meanhoe:_** **@newtisaacs** needs to stop getting **@callmesonya** to sing with him on the bus, she's meant to be revising! # _badinfluence_

 ** _callmesonya, iamalby, newtisaacs_** and **12,044** people liked this post

 

> **_callmesonya_** **:** I've got this Min, who needs to revise for exams these days anyway, right? #imsoscrewed
> 
> **_newtisaacs: @callmesonya_** I'm not sure Alice will be too happy to hear that
> 
> **_callmesonya:_** Mum doesn't have twitter, dumbo, she'll never know!

 

 ** _newtisaacs:_** Who needs friends when you can have pancakes, right? _#bestfoodever_

_[See attached photo]_

 

> **_callmesonya, meanhoe, captaingally_** and **10,250** people liked this post
> 
> **_meanhoe:_** Just because some people on here are agreeing with you, doesn’t mean you aren’t still wrong, it's gross
> 
> **_newtisaacs:_** See, friends, who needs them?
> 
> **_callmesonya:_** You're both so childish, how are you the older ones here?
> 
> **_newtisaacs:_** He started it
> 
> * * *

Thomas couldn’t exactly say he was surprised that Teresa asked Brenda to go to the concert with her rather than him, but that didn't mean he wasn't a little bit miffed about it. So maybe he didn't actually know any of the band's music, but a chance to go backstage at a concert venue sounded pretty damn cool and he'd gotten his hopes up a little that he could go and check it out.

He'd once again found himself with nothing to do and was lounging around on the sofa, flicking through the channels aimlessly and cursing himself for having absolutely no social life outside of university. Teresa had already left for the concert so it wasn't as if he could even go an talk to her, not that he understood why she'd gone over to Brenda's so early, it was only two in the afternoon and the venue didn't even let people in until seven, they still had hours.

Thomas let out a sigh and turned off the TV, attempting to throw the remote onto the table and missing, wincing as the remote fell to the floor and crashed into the stack of CD's near the TV, knocking them over. Thomas groaned in annoyance and pushed himself off the sofa, heading past the coffee table to sit down in front of the CD's so he could restack them.

He placed some of them back onto the pile, making sure they were stable when one of them caught his eye. Thomas grabbed the case off the floor and brought it closer, the image showing a vast desert scape with ruined buildings off in the background, covered in dust. Bold, black lettering on the front identified the album as _'The Scorch'_ , with the band's name in a smaller font just underneath reading _'The Flare Infected'_ and suddenly it clicked as to why he recognised the image, it had been on a screen in the background during the band's interview last week.

Thomas would be lying if he said he wasn't even a little bit interested about their music, and if Teresa's reaction to them was anything to go by they must be at least decent and it wasn't often that they didn't agree on music, so he decided to give them a shot.

He stacked up the rest of the CD's and left _The Scorch_ out on the side, grabbing it off the coffee table on his way past to the stairs, taking them two at a time to get to his room on the top floor. Thomas pulled his laptop over as he sat down on the bed, opening the disk drive so that he could put the CD in, pressing play when it loaded.

He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, tapping his fingers to the drum beat as the music started. As he listened to the music he found himself trying to place each of the band members from what he could remember of the interview, attempting to work out which of them was playing what.

The singer was the easiest to figure out, the feminine voice standing out strong against the music was obviously Sonya and Thomas wasn't all that surprised, she definitely acted like she'd make a good front man, despite seemingly being younger than the rest of the band by at least a few years.

The other band members were not as easy to decide on, since without actually looking it up he had no way of knowing, but he could at least pick out the instruments. By the end of the second song he was pretty certain that there were drums, a bass guitar and at least two different guitar beats; there were backing vocals on the track's too that he guessed belonged to one of the boys and Thomas found himself wondering who it was that was singing them.

His thoughts were interrupted when, for the second time that week, Teresa came into his room, flopping down on the bed next to him with a huff, her arms crossed over her chest. Thomas rolled over onto his stomach and reached out for his laptop, pressing pause on the music and pushing himself up into a seated position.

"Is this going to become an everyday thing with you? Barging into my room uninvited?" He asked and regretted the joking manner in which he’d asked when he turned to see the disappointed look on her face. “Teresa, you okay?”

"Brenda's ill, she can't come with me to the concert tonight."

"So?” He asked, kind of confused as to what the problem was. “Just ask someone else." Teresa shot him a look as if that was the stupidest thing he could have said, which just caused him to frown, surely she had other friends that liked the band that could go with her? What was the big deal?

"It's too short notice, Tom. No one’s going to be able to come." She stated and Thomas had to admit that was probably true, with only five hours to go before the concert started it was quite unlikely that people wouldn’t already have plans of their own.

"I'll go with you." Teresa snapped her gaze back over to his, sitting up on the bed to face him.

"What?" Thomas wondered if maybe she thought he was joking, which really wasn’t all that big of an assumption for her to make since he was the one that was making fun of her for getting so excited about it last week, but he didn’t want to see her get upset about something that he could quite easily fix.

It wasn’t even as if it would be that much of a burden on his life, he had absolutely no plans already and from what he’d heard their music was actually quite good and the band seemed friendly enough from their interview; if anything, thinking about it now he was actually kind of excited about the prospect of going.

"I'll come with you to the concert,” He repeated, shrugging. “It could be fun." Teresa still didn’t seem convinced that he wasn’t messing with her, the frown not having quite left her face.  

“But you don't even like their music?" She questioned and Thomas shook his head.

“Not true!” Thomas pointed out, turning his laptop round to face her, their album still up on the screen. “I was literally just listening to it, they were actually pretty good." Teresa stared at the screen for a few seconds before her gaze returned to his, looking much happier than she had when she walked into the room.

"So you really want to come? Seriously?" Thomas nodded his reply and Teresa let out a short squeal of excitement, moving forward to pull him into a tight hug. Thomas let out a huff of air at the sudden contact but hugged her back none the less.

"Thank you, Tom!" She gave him a quick squeeze before letting go and jumping down off the bed, heading off across the landing to her own room. Thomas huffed out a laugh and lay back down on his bed, reaching out to press play on the music again.

"No problem, T." He shouted across the hall just as the music started up, trying to pass the time before he'd have to think about getting ready for the concert.

His curiosity soon got the better of him and after getting halfway through the album he pulled up Google on his laptop and searched the band in the hopes of finding out who played what. He wasn't all that surprised to find that Minho was the drummer, he definitely had the arms for it, although he'd had it as a toss-up between him and Gally.

Newt's role in the band surprised him, although he wasn't entirely sure why, just something about him playing bass didn't seem to suit him - he made a mental note of asking him about it later, that is if he was actually as nice as he'd seemed to be on the show.

Time seemed to pass a lot faster now that he actually had something to look forward to that evening, and if Thomas used the rest of that time to listen to the album a few more times and look through the bands tag on Tumblr, no one was there to judge him.

But if Thomas had known how long it was going to take Teresa to get ready, he wouldn't have offered to go with her.

He'd been downstairs waiting for her for at least half an hour now, sitting up on the kitchen counter, fiddling with his car keys. Thomas was starting to worry they were leaving it a bit late, it was a twenty minute drive to the arena and they only had half an hour until the time they'd been told to get there.

In the time leading up to the concert he'd had chance to finish listening to the band’s album and he had to admit, they were actually really good. He was kind of surprised he hadn't heard of them before, since according to Teresa they were pretty popular and Thomas figured she was probably right. They were just about to start their sold out state wide tour, that didn't just happen to any group.

Thomas jumped a little when he felt a buzz in his pocket, drawing him out of his thoughts. He grabbed his phone to see that he had a message from Aris and unlocked his phone to read it.

 

> **_From Aris_ ** _(received: 17:27)_
> 
> _Are you still up for our match tonight?_

Thomas let out a frustrated groan as he read the message. Him and Aris had always had games night on a Saturday and had decided to keep it up over the break, meeting online for hours on end to kill a couple hundred zombies and catch up on what they'd been up too.

It was fun and it always gave him something to look forward to throughout the week, but this time he'd completely forgotten about it, too caught up in the concert to remember to cancel on him.

 

> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 17:28)_
> 
> _I can't, got backstage passes to a concert with T, sorry man_

He typed out his response and clicked send, hoping Aris wouldn't be too mad at him. He probably wouldn't, even if he was one of the most pessimistic and grumpy guys he knew, he usually didn't get angry about anything too easily.

He didn't have to wait long for an answer, his phone buzzing again to signify he had a new message.

 

> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 17:28)_
> 
> _I guess I can let that one slide. You're not going to see some shitty girly band are you?_

Thomas shook his head and huffed out a laugh as he typed out his reply, glad Aris wasn't mad with him. It wasn't as if they couldn't reschedule their game anyway, this concert was a one-time thing - a one-time thing he was actually kind of looking forward to.

 

> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 17:29)_
> 
> _They're called The Flare Infected? Apparently they're a pretty big deal, never heard of them before last week though_
> 
> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 17:29)_
> 
> _Back the fuck up a second. You've got backstage passes to see The Flare Infected and you didn't tell me?! Dude, they're like my favourite band!_

To say Thomas was surprised by his reply was an understatement, since when had they been Aris' favourite band? Since when had he even _had_ a favourite band?

 

> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 17:30)_
> 
> _Since when?_
> 
> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 17:30)_
> 
> _Since the whole time you've know me, how did you not know that? You know what, I take it back, you're not forgiven for abandoning game night. I'm replacing you with Zart._
> 
> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 17:31)_
> 
> _Fine by me, you two have fun_
> 
> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 17:31)_
> 
> _Fuck you._

Thomas might have been worried that Aris actually was angry with him - there really was no way of knowing over text - if another message hadn't arrived seconds later.

 

> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 17:31)_
> 
> _Take photos, you ass._
> 
> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 17:32)_
> 
> _Will do, dick._

Thomas was smiling as he shoved his phone in his pocket, jumping down off the top of the kitchen counter. He dropped his keys on top of the counter and wandered over to the stairs, leaning against the wall at the bottom.

"You ready yet?" He called up to Teresa, waiting for a reply that didn't follow. Thomas frowned at the silence, starting to head upstairs to see what was going on. "Teresa?"

"I'm almost done, just hold on one second!" She called out of her room and Thomas let out a sigh, leaning back up against the wall, tapping at it whilst he waited.

"Well hurry up, we need to get going." Thomas pulled up the sleeve of his jumper to check the time on his watch - _17:35_ \- they still had time, just.

"I know, Tom, chill! I'm done, I'm done." Thomas was about to head down the stairs when he remembered something, turning back to call up to her again.

"Have you got the passes?” The backstage passes had been sent to them a few days ago so that they could get in, hopefully, without any problems. Thomas wasn’t actually all too sure about where they were meant to be going, so he really hoped Teresa had more information than he did.

"Yeah, catch." Teresa told him as she appeared at the top of the stairs, throwing him one of the passes, the other hanging down from her neck. Thomas jumped a little at her sudden appearance, almost dropping the pass on the floor.

"Could you not have just passed it to me?" Thomas asked as Teresa walked past him, jumping down the last two steps to make it towards the front door. She just shrugged and Thomas sighed, reaching out to grab his keys off the kitchen counter as he followed after her, shutting the door behind him.

Thomas frowned down at the name on the top of the pass when he sat down in the driver's side of the car, just as he went to put it around his neck for safe keeping. "This says I'm called Brenda?" Her name was written in block letters in permanent marker under the ' _name_ ' section of the pass, leaving no space for him to write his name anywhere on the line.

"We kind if filled them out as soon as they arrived." Teresa told him, sounding a little apologetic. "You'll still get in though. It's the pass that's important, right?" She didn't sound all too sure and Thomas was thinking the same thing, what if they didn't let him in? He shook his head, dispelling the thought - it was stupid, of course they'd let him in, the name on his pass really didn't matter.

"Yeah, it'll be fine." Thomas reached up to adjust the mirrors when he spotted the box he'd left in the car the day before. "Oh hey, I've got something for you." He reached round his seat into the back of his car, grabbing the box he had wrapped up on the back seat. "I know you said we were-"

"Waiting until tonight to give each other presents." Teresa cut him off as he dropped the box in her lap, turning in her seat so she could face him better. "Come on Tom, it's tradition! We give gifts at midnight." Teresa held out the box to give back to him but Thomas shook his head, refusing to take it back.

"We might not be back home in time for midnight so I wanted to make sure you got it on your birthday." Teresa watched him for a couple of seconds and Thomas was nervous she might not take it, but soon there was a smile spreading on her face as she brought the box closer to her, pulling at the paper to open it.

Ever since they were little it had been a tradition between the two of them that they'd swap birthday presents at midnight. It had started when they'd learnt that not only was Teresa five minutes older than Thomas - much to his annoyance and her delight - but that she'd also technically been born a day before him.

After having spent the first seven years of their lives celebrating their birthdays on the same day, they'd decided it was stupid to stop now and had convinced their parents to let them open presents at midnight so that they could be as close to each other's birthdays as possible. What had started out as a silly thing for them to do as kids had carried on even now that they were twenty-one, Thomas figured now was as good a time as any to try something new.

He studied her face as she opened the small box, watching nervously for her reaction. He'd never been all too good with gifts, not knowing what to buy people and usually getting it completely wrong, but he'd tried really hard this year - the small smile on Teresa's face as she saw what was inside helped him to relax a little.

"Tom, this is..." She trailed off as she took the silver locket out of the box, dangling it from her fingers. "This is beautiful." She decided on, a large grin spreading across her face as she ran her thumb over the pattern.

"Brenda helped me pick it out, so I can't take all the credit." Teresa huffed out a laugh at that, turning the locket around in her hands. "You should open it." Teresa glanced over at him curiously before carefully opening the locket, her smile getting impossibly bigger at the image inside.

He'd spent hours trying to decide on what to do, eventually settling on a picture of him, Teresa and Brenda from last summer where they're all pulling stupid faces at the camera. He left the half of the locket blank, that way she could choose the other image for herself.

Teresa shut the locket, unclipping the chain so that she could put it round her neck. Once it was in place she reached over and pulled Thomas into a hug, which he returned, even if it was a little uncomfortable because of the position.

"I love it, Tom. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Thomas smiled to himself as he pulled back, settling back into his seat and turning the keys in his car, the engine rumbling beneath him. "Right, you ready to go?" He asked, shooting a glance at Teresa who nodded excitedly, stowing the now empty box and wrapping paper in the car's glove compartment.

"Ready as I'll ever be!"

Teresa didn't stop talking the whole drive over, rattling on about the songs the band might be performing. As she talked about all the different songs Thomas kind of wished he'd had chance to listen to the band's other album, not really recognising most of the songs she was talking about.

"I hope they play some songs from The Maze." Thomas frowned as he they pulled into the parking lot of the arena, driving down the aisles to try and find an empty space to park the car.

"The what?" He asked. He could see Teresa roll her eyes at him from the corner of his eye but he ignored her, concentrating on searching for spaces.

"The _Maze._ It's their first album, I thought you said you'd listened to it?"

"I said I'd listened to their second album a few times, that's it." Thomas told her and she nodded, moving in her seat a little to watch out the side windows.

"There's one there." She pointed out over to the left of the car and Thomas slowed down, pulling into the parking space and turning off the ignition. Teresa opened the door and got out the car, Thomas following suit, locking the doors as they made their way over to the arena.

The arena was much bigger than he remembered it being, having been to some concerts a few years ago with his old friends from high school, but it had been ages since he'd been back and he was starting to get a little excited to be surrounded by the concert atmosphere again.

"What's with the album names anyway?" He asked as they made their way through the car park. "I don't get it." He'd been wondering about it as soon as he'd seen the name of their album, sort of confused as to how the whole _'Scorch'_ concept had happened.

"Both albums have this big story with the music videos, they're actually pretty great." Teresa explained, walking a little ahead of him to lead them to the back entrance of the arena. "The first album they're stuck in a field in the middle of this giant maze and they have to try and find their way out, it's kind of amazing they managed to get it to fit with the songs, but it works _really_ well, you'd love it. That's where the album names come from, the videos."

Thomas guessed that made sense, having a story for music videos actually seemed like a pretty interesting idea, he'd have to check them out at some point.

They had to push their way through the crowd of people lining up at the main doors to get to the stage door round the corner, Thomas apologising to everyone he knocked into as Teresa dragged him through. He was amazed at how many people were there already, the line winding all the way through to the other end of the car park; he made sure to stick close to Teresa so that he wouldn't get lost, having no idea where he was actually meant to be going.

Once they reached the doors a tall man was stood in front of them, arms folded across his chest. He had a long pointed nose and a short, dark haired beard speckled with grey hairs. Thomas thought he probably would have looked quite intimidating - despite his thin frame - if the first thought that came to him wasn't that he looked a little bit like a rat.

"The entrance is back that way." He told them, gesturing back to the long line they'd just walked through.

"Yeah we know, we have backstage passes." Teresa told the man, holding up her pass to show him when he asked for it. He scanned over it for a while before passing it back to her, asking to see Thomas' which he handed over only a little reluctantly, kind of embarrassed at the thought of the guy thinking he was called Brenda.

He didn't really seem to care though, just waving to two of them through the huge double doors behind them as he passed Thomas back his pass.

The inside was a lot bigger than what he'd expected, large masses of people filled the space, all carrying boxes of equipment and large stacks of paper. Each of them were wearing a black t-shirt, their role written in bold orange lettering on the back under the words _'Scorch Tour'._

Thomas trailed behind Teresa as they were directed to the other side of the room, trying take everything in as he did. He got so caught up in his surroundings that he barely noticed Teresa was still talking to him, tuning back into the conversation half way through her explanation of something.

"… new videos haven't been released yet, but apparently they're following the story on from the last album, they're getting released next week."

"Well hopefully you won't be disappointed, we worked pretty hard on them." Thomas had to stop himself from bumping into Teresa as she suddenly stopped in front of him, staring at the four people in front of them - Minho in particular who was smiling at the two of them from where he'd just spoken at the front of the group. "It's Teresa, right?"

Thomas had to nudge Teresa to get her to answer since she was still too busy staring, he tried not to laugh when she jumped a little at the action, a blush rising on her cheeks as she did.

“Yes, sorry. Hi.” Thomas smiled to himself as she rubbed her neck in embarrassment, moving to the side so that she was stood next to him, no longer blocking him from view. “This is Thomas, my brother.”

“Not Brenda then?” One of them asked, he was taller than the rest of them and he seemed to look constantly angry. Thomas tried to think back to the names of the other band members besides Minho and Newt, he thought maybe this one was Gally?

“Brenda’s my friend that was meant to be coming.” Teresa told them, not looking the slightest bit as disappointed as she had done earlier. Thomas decided it was because she was too excited being here and not that she didn’t care about her friends wellbeing. “She’s ill, so she couldn’t make it.”

"I'm sorry to hear that." The dark skinned boy - who Thomas figured must be Alby - told them, he actually looked genuinely sad to hear it too. "Let her know we hope she gets better soon."

"I'm sure she'll really appreciate that, thanks." If Thomas had to explain the silence that followed, awkward would be the word he would use, the six of them all staring at each other as they waiting for someone to speak. He suspected Teresa hadn't noticed though, she looked so in awe of the people in front of her that he would be surprised if the place caught fire and she didn't realise.

"Right." Minho broke the silence, clapping his hands together. "We best get going if you guys want a tour before the show." He told them, starting to walk backwards towards the doors on the other side of the room. "It's a little busy at the minute so just be careful of all the random crap laying around back here, I swear it's all actually important."

It wasn't long before Minho was stopping suddenly, the whole group having to react quickly not to hit him. “Wait.” Minho turned back to face the rest of them. “Guys, one of us is going to have to wait for Newt to get back or he won’t know where we’ve gone.”

Minho's statement made Thomas realise what it was he felt like was missing, Newt wasn't with the group. Thomas found himself wondering where it was he'd gone and why he wasn't with the rest of them.

“I can wait for him.” Thomas suggested when no one else seemed like they were going to stay behind. The four of them looked at him with expressions ranging from confusion to gratefulness, the last coming from Minho who clapped him on the shoulder before he started walking backwards towards the doors again.

“Just tell him we'll be in the rehearsal space, yeah?” Thomas nodded to say he’d got it and Minho shot him one last smile before turning around again, leading the group away and out the doors. Teresa turned back to wave at him just as the doors closed and Thomas was left behind the stage, alone.

He had no idea how long Newt was going to be, he actually had no idea what he was even doing, so he just hopped up onto one of the crates for the instruments to wait for him and dug out his phone, messing around on twitter to see if anything interesting was happening.

He snapped his gaze up when he heard the doors opening again, expecting to see Newt walk through only to be met with some more members of the crew carrying around a bunch of wires that he had no idea what they were being used for, but either way looked kind of important. Thomas’ attention was pulled away from them by a sudden ping from his phone and he looked down to see that he had a text from Aris.

 

> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 18:25)_
> 
> _Are you there yet? Is backstage cool? Should I be jealous?_

Thomas huffed out a laugh and shook his head, typing out a reply to his friend; if he’d known how much of a fan of the band Aris was earlier, he probably would have suggested he went in his place.

 

> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 18:26)_
> 
> _Yes, I'm here. Yes, backstage is pretty cool. No, you should not be jealous, I’m literally sat on my own on a storage box_
> 
> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 18:27)_
> 
> _But it’s a famous person's storage box, that has to feel good, right?_
> 
> **_To Aris:_ ** _(sent: 18:27)_
> 
> _Would it make you happy if I said yes?_
> 
> **_From Aris:_ ** _(received: 18:28)_
> 
> _Immensely._
> 
> **_From Thomas:_ ** _(sent: 18:28)_
> 
> _Then yes, sitting on this storage box feels amazing_

 

 ** _tomiswckd_** **:** there you go **@punkassaris,** you wanted pictures, here's me and my new box

_[See attached photo]_

 

> **_punkassaris, thelastairbrenda, teresaagnes_** and **_12 other people_** liked this post
> 
> **_punkassaris:_** dude, it has the band's name on it, how does that not feel cool?!
> 
> **_tomiswckd:_** trust me, you get over it
> 
> * * *

They'd gotten to the hotel they'd be staying in for the night pretty late after Sonya's graduation and Newt had gone straight to bed, flopping down on the mattress and cocooning himself in the sheets, revelling in the warmth they brought.

The trip to the hotel had been pretty uneventful, most of the others had gone to sleep in their bunks so Newt had decided to go and sit up front with Ben, not being able to get to sleep himself. They didn't talk much, Newt mostly just watching the world pass by outside the large glass windows, curled up in the seat as the two of them listened quietly to the radio.

It was times like that Newt really appreciated, having the chance to just sit in silence and not have to worry about what was going on around him, have a little bit of peace from the craziness that had become his life. As he lay awake the next morning, staring up at the fan spinning around on the ceiling, he knew that peace was ending.

Newt rolled over in bed and reached out for his phone, charging on the nightstand where he'd left it. He pushed the power button and squinted as the eyes adjusted to the bright light, the time at the top showing it as 10:35. Newt dropped the phone back on the side and forced himself out of bed, padding over to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

He figured no one else would be up yet, all of them being stupidly heavy sleepers, even if he had woken up a lot later than he normally would have done.  

He took the time to take a long shower, sighing as the warm water rolled down his back, tipping his head back to let the water wash through his hair. Newt just stood under the water with his eyes closed for a few minutes before getting washed and turning off the water, wrapping a towel around his waist as he got out the shower.

He quickly dried off and got dressed, putting on a pair of grey sweats and a baggy jumper from his rucksack, having decided to get changed properly on the tour bus later. Newt grabbed his phone and charger off the nightstand and shoved them into his bag, pulling the strap over his shoulder before heading over to Minho's room across the hall for just past eleven, knocking a few times to make sure he wasn't going to barge in on him getting dressed again.

"Min, you up?" He called through the door, and when he got no reply he just shrugged, opening the door with the spare key Minho had given him the day before. Newt shut the door behind him and was about to go and wake him up when he turned around and stopped in shock at the sight in front of him.

Minho was stood up in the middle of his bed shirtless, wearing just a pair of shorts, his hands running through his hair in annoyance - but that wasn't what shocked Newt, it was the state that his room was in. All the sheets had been flung off the bed, hanging over the backs of chairs and spread out across the floor. It looked like the entire contents of Minho's suitcase was all over the floor, a t-shirt even hanging off the ceiling fan, spinning round just a few inches from Minho's head.

"Bloody hell." Minho snapped his gaze over to Newt as he spoke, obviously not having heard him come in, the worried expression that was covering his features suddenly turned to one much more thankful as he hopped down off the bed, coming to drag Newt further into the room.

"I can't find them." Minho told him, dropping his arm as the two of them stood near the foot of the bed, Newt staring at the carnage around him.

"Can't find what?" He asked, moving to sit down at the end of the bed, stifling a yawn in the process.

"My drumsticks, I can't find them."

"So?" Newt didn't understand what the problem was, they had plenty of spare equipment on the bus, Minho could just use some of those and pick them up when they got there, what was the big deal?

"So?!" Minho exclaimed, "Dude, they're my lucky sticks, I can't play the first show without them!" Newt took a minute to pause then, he'd completely forgotten about Minho's weird superstition, but now his panic was starting to make much more sense.

Back when they were just playing for fun in high school none of them had thought the band was ever actually going to get them anywhere, all of them had plans as to what it was they wanted to do in life and trying to make it as a musician was never at the top of any of their lists. Sure it was fun, all of them really enjoyed it, but they hadn't thought they were good enough to record a song at that point, let alone a whole album.

They'd managed to book a spot at the bar a couple of blocks from their school performing a half hour set every Saturday evening. The pay was decent and the reactions they got from the people in the bar were always positive, so they made it a regular thing.

The summer after they finished high school and Minho had managed to get Sonya to join the band, the five of them were at another one of their Saturday night performances, packing up their equipment when a man had approached them on stage, asking for the one in charge. To say Newt was confused was an understatement, he was pretty certain that they were in some sort of trouble, but Alby had come forward and the two of them had gone off to the other side of the bar to talk, leaving the rest of them watching from the stage in bewilderment.

"What do you think that's all about?" Newt had asked but no one gave him an answer, each of them just as confused as he was so they'd just gone back to packing away, waiting at the front door for Alby and the guy to finish talking.

Newt had expected him to return and tell them they didn't have the job anymore, that they'd been kicked out, but he hadn't. Instead, Alby had returned with a huge grin on his face, passing Newt over a business card instead, which Newt stared down at in shock.

"He's a...?" Newt trailed off, unsure as to what he wanted to say as he read the card. Alby seemed to get it though, nodding enthusiastically.

"Yeah." Newt glanced up at him, Gally reaching over to grab the card off him so that he could see what it said. Newt was too shocked to even form a full sentence, stumbling over his words to try and think of what to say.

"But I... Seriously?" He asked, completely lost for words, but Alby just nodded, the smile not leaving his face for a second.

" _Seriously_."

"This guy really works for Right Arm Records?" Gally asked, passing the card back over to Alby with a look of shock on his face, Minho and Sonya peering over Alby's shoulders to read the contents of the card, Minho reaching behind Alby to high-five her when he realised what was going on.

"He asked us to come in tomorrow, recons we have a shot at making it big." That'd been the very start of their career, the music label taking them on not long after, and since then Minho had decided that the drumsticks he'd used that night were lucky and he didn't like to go on stage without them - whether he used them or just kept them near him didn't matter - especially not on the first night.

Newt took another look round the room, trying to see if he could spot them but to no avail. "Well have you looked everywhere?" Minho shot him a look at that, eyebrows raised.

"What the fuck does it look like I’ve been doing?" Minho flopped down on the bed next to him, his lower legs hanging over the edge as he grabbed a pillow, hugging it to his chest. "I'm doomed, the show is doomed, this is going to be a disaster." Newt knew Minho was probably being over dramatic, but he also knew how important this was to him and if he went onstage without them something was bound to go wrong just because Minho believed it would.

Newt got up off the bed, grabbing hold of the pillow Minho had tight hold of and tugged it out of his grip, Minho groaning and reaching out to get it back. "Newt, what are you doing?" He asked as Newt threw the pillow back onto the bed, Minho sitting up to frown at him.

"You're not going to find them by sulking about it, I'm helping you look." Minho seemed to perk up a little at that, getting up off the bed.

"Have I ever told you that I love you?" Newt huffed out a laugh, shaking his head.

"Only when you want something, now get looking or we're going to be here all day!" By the time Gally, Alby and Sonya entered the room they were still no closer to having found them and had to enlist their help in searching to room. It wasn’t until an hour of Gally's constant complaining that they actually found Minho's drumsticks and at that point, Gally wasn’t the only one who looked like they wanted to kill him as he stormed over to Minho, the backpack containing Minho's drumsticks held tight in his clenched fist.

"You didn't look in your bag?" Gally yelled as Minho jumped up onto the bed to get away from him. "We've been looking for an hour and they were in your fucking _bag_ , you idiot!"

"I swear I looked there!" Minho told him, not looking all too certain that he actually had. Newt was annoyed to say the least, they'd wasted a lot of time here and now it was looking like they were going to be late just because Minho didn't actually check his bag.

"Well they didn't just magically appear!" Gally threw the bag at Minho which he caught, stumbling back and almost falling off the bed in his effort. Newt reached out to grab hold of him and pull him back, Gally storming off out the room with Alby close behind him.

Sonya flinched as the door slammed behind them, the three of them standing in silence for a while after they left. Minho let out a sigh of relief once they were gone, dropping his bag down on the bed.

"Can I get a little help tidying up?" Newt snapped his gaze over to Minho, glaring at his friend. From the expression on Minho's face Newt guessed Sonya was looking at him the same way. "I'm going to take that as a no then."

By the time the five of them were on the tour bus and heading towards the arena Gally had calmed down somewhat, but that didn't stop Minho from apologising profusely on the way there. It didn't really matter though because they were now half an hour late to the venue and someone was going to have to stay behind after the sound check to help unload what they needed from the bus whilst the others went to go and greet Teresa and whoever she'd brought along with her, which was less than ideal.

Newt let out a sigh of relief as the tour bus rolled to a stop outside the night’s venue, silence filling the bus as the engine shut off. To say that Newt was excited about the concert was an understatement, but right now he was just happy to be off the bus so he could get a little fresh air before they were stuck inside for the rest of the evening.

His earlier conclusion that he wasn't going to be getting any peace that day had definitely gotten off to a correct start, and it wasn't looking like the rest of the day was going to be any better if it carried on like that.

Newt was the first one out of the tour bus as soon as Ben opened the doors, practically throwing himself out onto the tarmac. He took in a deep breath of air and closed his eyes for a few seconds, just trying to calm himself down and ignore the arguments that were still going on around him.

It wasn't long before the others exited the vehicle too, Minho and Sonya heading straight over to the arena, Newt following and leaving Gally and Alby to trail along behind them. He hoped that keeping Minho and Gally apart for a bit would help to cool down the tension between them, God knows them fighting all night was the last thing they needed to happen.

As soon as they set foot in the main arena Newt took a sigh of relief, just taking in the sight around him. The vastness of the space never ceased to amaze him as he wandered slowly down the centre of the room towards the main stage. All the chairs on the floor had already been taken out making the floor almost seem empty, he couldn't wait for it to be filled full of people again.

Newt was suddenly brought out of his daze by Minho wrapping an arm round his shoulder, causing him to jump a little and turn more to face him.

"It seems bigger than I remember it being." Minho told him, staring up at the balcony surrounding them. Newt followed his gaze, taking in the sight - he'd always wondered what a concert must be like from up there, maybe one day he'd have to try it out.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Newt agreed, glancing over at the stage when a loud bang sounded, followed soon after by a shriek from Sonya as she hurried to pick up the mic stand she'd just knocked over. He could feel Minho laughing beside him as he freed his arm from round Newt, running up to the stage to join Sonya.

Newt shook his head, trying to suppress a smile as he turned round to see if Gally and Alby were still following them, the two of them just heading in through the large double doors at the back of the room. Gally still didn't look particularly happy but Newt couldn't really bring it in himself to care just then, turning back to take the hand Minho was offering him to pull him up onto the stage.

"Dude, when did you get so heavy?" Minho asked as Newt got up onto the stage, pretending to struggle as he helped him upright. Newt just rolled his eyes, letting go of Minho's arm as he let out a short laugh. "Hey I'm just saying, might want to cut back on the pancakes."

Newt flipped him off as he went to go and join Sonya in the centre of the stage, to where she was jumping up and down repeatedly on one part of the floor.

"What are you doing?" Sonya snapped her eyes up to him, a huge smile on her face.

" _Trap doors_ , Newt. We actually have trap doors." He tried to fight back a smile at her excitement, looking over the stage to see the five panels he hadn't noticed yet. Newt hadn't been a fan of the idea when they'd been planning the stage layout, not being too comfortable with the thought of falling through. The stage crew had convinced him though, assuring him the doors were to get them up onto the stage, not to let them drop through.

That didn't mean watching Sonya jump on it made him any less nervous. "Maybe you should quit doing that then."

"Nah, Winston says it's safe." She told him, a slight look of panic washing over her face as she did so. She stepped off the door, turning towards the edge of the stage; when Newt followed her gaze he noticed Winston stood at the top of the stairs, looking amused. "Right?"

He just shrugged, going over to join them. "Pretty safe." Winston was in charge of their stage crew, making sure everything that went on behind the scenes ran smoothly. Newt wasn't really all too sure what he actually did, but he knew he must be doing it pretty well since they only had one slip up back on the last tour.

"That's really comforting, thank you." Newt told him and Winston just shot him a sly grin, clapping him on the shoulder as he went past.

"You're welcome. Now grab your stuff, you're late."

"You heard the man." Minho yelled down the room at Gally and Alby who seemed to have stopped to talk halfway to the stage, the two of them looking over at him as he did. "Get your butts up here!"

Thankfully, after a rough start to the morning, the sound check ran smoothly. Everyone's equipment was working as it should do and they had chance to run through three songs before they were being vacated so the staff at the arena could set up the room.

Newt had managed to relax a little, glad that both Minho and Gally had been able to get along long enough for them to get through the sound check. He'd hoped it'd carry on for the rest of the day, hell the rest of their _lives_ would have been nice but unfortunately he didn't have that good luck.

"Well who's staying behind to help out? One of us has too." Sonya asked the group, each of them looking determined that it wasn't going to be them.

"I'll help." Newt suggested, hoping that would be the end of the conversation but Gally seemed to have other ideas, talking over him to voice his opinions.

"I vote Minho stays, it's his fault we're running late." Gally suggested, arms folded as he leant against the side of the tour bus. Sonya and Alby were nodding in agreement but Minho was just frowning at the three of them. They'd been stood outside the bus for at least five minutes now, arguing back and forth between themselves about who was going to be staying behind.

Newt was sat down on the steps leading up to the bus’s open doors, head in his hands as he listened to them argue. He didn't really understand what the problem was, all they needed to do was carry in a few boxes, what was the big deal with staying behind?

"I already apologised, why do I have to stay behind?!" Minho exclaimed. "Why can't you do it, Gally?"

"Because I don't want to." Gally said matter of factly, shrugging at Minho's annoyed expression. Sonya sighed across from where Newt sat, running a hand through her hair.

"Well I'm not staying behind, I can't carry half the boxes in there."

"Bullshit!" Minho called, whipping round to face her. "You can so carry them, more than Alby can at least." Alby had mostly been staying out of the conversation until then, stood off to the side with Newt, but as soon as he was mentioned his attention was snapped over to the three of them, eyebrows raised.

"Excuse me? Of course I can carry more than Sonya." Alby told them, sounding incredibly offended by the accusation.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sonya asked, arms folded across her chest as she stared Alby down, but he just rolled his eyes at her comment which just seemed to make her more annoyed. "If you're so strong, why don't you stay behind?"

"Because I don't-"

"Oh for fuck sakes!" Newt shouted, cutting Alby off. "I'll stay behind if it'll get you all to shut up!" He looked up from his hands to see that all of them had turned to stare at him, obviously shocked by his outburst. He couldn't say he was surprised, he had been pretty quiet up until that point, but they were really starting to get on his nerves. "Get inside, I'll help unload the bloody boxes and quit arguing, for the love of God."

None of them said anything as they left which Newt was thankful for, heading off to the back doors of the arena and leaving him out in the parking lot, only Ben and Winston left waiting in the bus behind him.

"I'm surprised you haven't killed any of them yet." Winston spoke up, staring after the four of them in bewilderment. Newt just huffed out a short laugh, picking himself up from the step to go in the bus to join them.

"There's still time, now what needs taking in?" He asked, Winston and Ben gesturing for him to follow them towards the back of the bus where they had a pile of boxes stacked up on the tables.

Newt felt a little bit bad that he wouldn't be there to greet Teresa and her friend - whoever that might be - but it was pretty unfair to leave the pile of stuff to be taken in by Ben and Winston, both of whom had other jobs that they needed to be doing. Newt silently cursed the others for making them even later as he grabbed one of the boxes and followed the others outside the bus.

It's not like Newt was even surprised that they were arguing about something as simple as who was staying behind, it happened all the time. There was never all that much heat behind it, but sometimes it got a little tedious and Newt just couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

They'd all been arguing on the way to Sonya's graduation the day before as Alby drove the four of them to the high school, Sonya already there with her and Newt's parents. Newt had really hoped they'd be able to have a relatively event free day, since it was pretty important to Sonya for them all to be there and he hadn't wanted anything to ruin that.

"We need to stay off to the side, we don't want to take the spotlight away from any of the graduates." Alby was trying to convince them that their presence at the ceremony was a bad idea, but neither of the others were convinced. This was Sonya's big day and they weren't about to miss out on it, especially not Newt.

"Do you really think the parents are going to care about who we are, Al?" Gally asked, leaning forward in his seat from the back so that he could talk to Alby easier.

"It's not the parents i'm worried about, what about the press?" Alby did actually sound kind of worried about it and Newt was a little surprised, Alby never really had much of a problem with the press before, why was now any different?

"How much press are you expecting to be there? It's a high school graduation, it's hardly high profile." Minho told them and Alby sighed, taking a right turn towards the school.

"Yes but it's _Sonya's_ graduation, I bet there'll be at least some there." Newt rolled his eyes as the three of them continued to argue, trying to tune them out. He didn't really care about what they had to say anyway, he was planning on sitting with Alice and James - his and Sonya's parents - no matter what the others decided they were going to do.

He was really glad Sonya hadn't decided to ride over with them, instead going with a few of her friends instead, she was nervous enough as it was without having to listen to the three of them arguing the whole ride over.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Minho clapped a hand on his shoulder from the backseat, bringing his attention back to the three of them, who were looking at him expectantly. "What?" He asked, confused as to why they were all staring at him all of a sudden.

"What do you think we should do?" Alby asked, averting his attention back to the road.

"Well i'm not standing off to the side where we can't see just because _you're_ worried we'll get spotted by the press." Newt told him, staring out the window as they pulled up into the high school parking lot. "Sonya's my sister, i'm not missing this." In the end Alby had caved, the four of them sitting in the seats they had reserved next to his and Sonya's parents, only drawing attention from a few of the students on stage.

The whole ceremony had been great, all six of them standing up to cheer loudly when Sonya's name was called, much to the annoyance of the row of parents behind them. Sonya didn't seem to mind though, laughing as she went to receive her diploma, waving at them when she went back to her seat.

He'd found it weird watching her graduate, not feeling like she was old enough to be doing so even though he knew she was no longer the quiet six year old she had been when Newt had first met her. But no matter what he felt she was still his little sister, and he couldn't have been more proud of her in that moment if he tried.

Now though, as he was carrying the last of the boxes into the storage room, he couldn't help but focus on the negatives. He loved the band, they were as much family to him as anyone ever would be, but sometimes he just wished people could control their tempers a little better- starting off the tour fighting was not going to be good for anyone if they didn't get a handle on it.

Newt dropped the last box on the pile and headed back outside, Ben and Winston thanking him as he came past, Winston patting him on the shoulder. By the time Newt pushed through the doors to backstage he noticed that the others had already gone, probably having taken Teresa and her friend on the tour they'd planned out.

He was about to head off to try and find them when he spotted a boy around his age sitting on top of one of the storage boxes, focused intently on his phone. If it wasn't for the large pass hanging round his neck Newt would have wondered how he'd gotten in - he must have been who Teresa had brought with her.

Not that it confused him any less, what the hell was he doing there?

 

 ** _meanhoe:_** Sound check done and we're ready to roll, # _ScorchTour_ here we come!

_[See photo attached]_

 

> **_callmesonya, teresaagnes, iamalby_** and **_25,311_** people like this post
> 
> **_callmesonya:_** Make sure you keep hold of those damn drumsticks or I swear I might actually kill you
> 
> **_captaingally:_** You won't be the only one
> 
> **_meanhoe:_** Really feeling the love tonight guys, thanks
> 
> * * *

Thomas wasn’t sure how long he was sat there for when he heard the door open again and footsteps approaching him. He didn't really pay them all that much attention though, each person before them had just been another member of the crew and whoever it was that had just come in was probably the same.

He glanced away from his phone when the footsteps stopped just in front of him, the bright red converse catching his eye. Thomas looked up to see who it was, only to be met with Newt, who somehow managed to look even better in person than he did on the talk show, if that was even possible.

He was stood tall in front of him, his hands dug into his pockets, a small, nervous looking smile on his face as he glanced down at the backstage pass that hung around Thomas' neck. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you aren't Brenda?"

Thomas went to respond with an explanation about the name tags but the words got caught in his throat and he ended up just staring at Newt for a few seconds, a little bit in shock at the sight in front of him. Newt was wearing a pair tight black jeans, a red and black plaid shirt tied round his waist and a grey t-shirt, the sleeves cut off to reveal subtly defined arms that Thomas had not been expecting but was definitely not opposed to.

What surprised Thomas even more were the winding black tattoos covering the length of Newt's left arm; intricate patterns that twisted and turned across his skin that seemed to form some sort of maze, fading out across his lower arm. Thomas had to pull his gaze away from the design before he got lost in the lines, glancing up at Newt's face instead.

He had on the same red beanie as when he was on the talk show, his hair sticking out at the front and falling slightly into his eyes. By the time Thomas pulled himself out of his trance, Newt was still smiling at him, looking more amused than anything. Thomas figured either he didn't mind him blatantly staring or he just hadn't noticed - he really hoped it was the latter.

Thomas coughed to clear his throat, straightening up a little as he put his phone back in his pocket, he could feel his cheeks heating up but he tried to ignore it. "Uh no, i'm not." He managed to get out and Newt nodded, moving over to hop up onto the crate next to him, swinging his legs a little once he’d sat down. He took his hands out of his pockets and held one out to Thomas.

"Well in that case... Hi, i'm Newt." Thomas glanced down at his outstretched hand before taking it in his, shaking it firmly.

"Thomas.” He introduced himself, dropping Newt’s hand quickly. “I'm Teresa's brother." He wasn't quite sure why that was something Newt needed to know, but it just sort of slipped out. He didn't even know if Newt would remember who Teresa was, he probably spoke to a lot of fans all the time, it must be hard to keep up.

"Got dragged along, right?" Newt asked and Thomas huffed out a laugh, shaking his head.

"Yeah, something like that." He replied and Newt laughed too, fiddling with his fingers. Thomas couldn't help but noticing how much more confident Newt seemed here talking to him than he had on the talk show. His posture was more relaxed and he looked more at ease, Thomas figured it was because there was only one of him as opposed to hundreds of people in the crowd, but it felt nice either way.

"Well we can't have you moping around back here the whole time, now can we?" Newt asked, breaking Thomas out of his thoughts. He really hoped he hadn't been staring again. "D'you want a tour?"

"What about the others?" Thomas asked, frowning. He'd assumed that when Newt arrived they'd just go and find the rest of the group, but he'd be lying if the idea of spending more time alone with Newt wasn't starting to feel very appealing to him.

"Good point." Newt seemed to sink a little bit in his seat, chewing on his bottom lip. "What time is it?" He asked a few seconds later and Thomas fumbled to get his phone out of his pocket, the time on the front showing that it was just after half six. He turned the phone to show Newt who seemed to perk up a little bit, the smile returning to his face once again. "We've got half an hour until any of the crowds come in, we can catch up with the others later, come on."

Newt jumped down off the box and gestured for Thomas to follow him, heading off to the right of the boxes towards a large black curtain. Thomas glanced over in the direction the others had left in and shook his head, climbing down off the box too and jogging after Newt to catch up with him. Teresa would be fine without him for a while, she was a big girl, she was probably having plenty of fun without him anyway.

Newt pushed past the curtains once Thomas had joined him, leading them into an open room full of large monitors and control panels. Thomas had no idea what any of them were meant to be used for but they all looked pretty important, so he pushed down the urge to press any of the buttons and followed Newt to the other side of the room where another large curtain was hung from the ceiling, blocking something from view.

Thomas stopped beside Newt, staring up at them. "Is the stage past here?" He asked, glancing over at Newt for confirmation. He nodded, pushing through the curtains to get to the other side. Thomas followed him through to a set of stairs that led up to the top of the stage, taking them two at a time so he could join Newt at the top.

Thomas slowed to a stop at the top of the stairs next to Newt to take in the view, the thousands of seats in the arena seeming to span out forever from their position in front of them all. He wandered over to the front of the stage, staring up at all the lights above them as he went, trying to imagine what it would be like if they were all shining down on him in the darkness.

"Does it not just make you feel really...?” He trailed off, glancing back over at Newt who was making his way over to where he was standing.

"Small?" He suggested, coming to a stop next to him, shoulders brushing against his. Thomas nodded, smiling slightly at the contact.

"Exactly."

"Every time." Newt answered, turning back round to face the rest of the area. "It's even more amazing when it's full."

"I can imagine." Thomas replied as Newt moved to sit down on the end of the stage, his legs hanging over the edge, hands in his lap. Thomas sat down next to him, crossing his legs as he watched Newt stare out across the sprawl of seats. They seemed to go on forever, reaching high up to the ceiling, towering over them even with the elevation of the stage. "How does it not make you nervous? Isn't it just a whole lot of pressure?"

"I don't really know, it's probably one of the only things to do with the band that doesn't make me a little nervous." Newt told him, swinging his legs, the backs of his heels knocking rhythmically against the stage. "You just get really caught up in the music, that's the most important thing about all this anyway, so I guess maybe that's the point."

Thomas nodded at that, glancing at the view around him again. He wanted to understand what Newt meant, but to him the idea of performing up here with thousands of people staring up at him was his idea of hell, especially if he was playing his own music; he was kind of in awe that Newt had the ability to do that.  

"I think if it was me up here, I’d probably throw up." Thomas told him in an attempt to lighten the mood, which definitely worked, causing a laugh to erupt from Newt, his shoulders shaking with the action. Thomas couldn't stop himself from laughing too at the sound, Newt's happiness seemingly being contagious.

He didn't stop himself staring openly at Newt now, his eyes closed and head leant back as he laughed - it was a beautiful sight that Thomas found himself wanting to see as much as he possibly could. He knew it was wrong to think so, forming feelings for a guy he'd only just met - let alone a celebrity - had only ever ended badly so he forced himself to turn his gaze elsewhere, trying to think of anything other than the curve of Newt's lips as he smiled.

"Well it's a good thing it's not then!" Newt decided on when he'd finally calmed down, leaning back on his hands.

The two of them were soon interrupted by someone calling over to Newt from the top of the stairs. "Mr Isaacs, the crowds will be coming soon, can we ask you to vacate the stage?" Thomas turned a little to see who'd called over to them. A short man stood at the top of the stairs, he had dark skin and short shaved hair; in his hands he held a clipboard that seemed to be overflowing with papers and a headset was hanging round his neck.

Thomas had no idea who he was or what he did, but he did know from the look of him he was probably quite important.

"Yeah of course." Newt told him. "You know you can call me Newt, right? I've known you for three years now, Jeff." Thomas had expected Newt to be annoyed by the interruption, having the rock star image set firmly in his brain as short tempered and snappy - even now after he'd gotten to know him a little bit - but he seemed more amused than anything, getting up off the floor.

"Sorry, force of habit," Jeff told them, shrugging. "But you really do need to get going."

"Roger that." Newt told him as Jeff made his way back down the stairs and out of sight. Newt pulled his feet back up onto the stage and stood up, holding out a hand to help Thomas up which he took gladly, using his other hand to push himself up. Newt dropped his hand once he'd helped him up and gestured to the other side of the stage. "We should probably be heading back to the others now anyway." Thomas nodded, falling into step beside Newt as they exited the stage, turning to take one last look before the view disappeared behind the curtains.

The walk back brought them through large rooms filled with sound equipment, instruments and other things that were way too technical for Thomas to comprehend, but looked pretty interesting anyway. The one thing that stuck out to him was how polite Newt was, saying hello to the people they passed and stopping to help with anything that needed doing on the way.

He didn't know why it surprised him, from what he'd seen of Newt so far he seemed like a pretty nice guy, but for some reason he'd kind of expected him to be a dick; he was glad he was wrong.

Newt put down one of the boxes he'd been carrying onto a large pile, shaking out his arms once he'd let go. Thomas stacked his box on top of it, watching Newt in amusement as he rolled his shoulders.

"Do you know everyone that works backstage or something?" Newt huffed out a laugh and shook his head as they continued on their way.

"The ones that travel with us I do, they all play a really important part in making sure the tour goes smoothly, we couldn't do any of it without them."

"Do the others see if that way?" Newt paused for a while at that, frowning a little as he seemed to think over his answer.

"Gally less so than the others, but I think so, be pretty dickish of them if they didn't. Do you always ask so many questions?" Thomas could feel the blush rising on his cheeks, moving to shove his hands in his pockets. He was about to apologise when Newt quickly turned round to face him, eyes widened a little. "Not that I mind, I just feel like i'm doing a lot of the talking."

Thomas scratched at the back of his neck, shrugging. "I want to be a journalist, asking questions is kind of in the job description." Newt seemed to relax a bit then, shoulders sagging a little, a small sigh escaping his lips.

"So you're not one right now?" Thomas shook his head, letting out a sigh of relief when Newt turned to open a large door which led to another long hallway, the sound of drums reverberating from one of the rooms along the way.

"Nah not yet, studying English and Media at college at the minute." He told him, Newt nodding as he led them to the last room down the hall which had a plaque on the front labelled _'rehearsal space'._

"That's what I was going to do. I mean the English part, not Media. I actually wanted to be an author."

"Wanted?" Thomas questioned, wondering why he still didn't want to try it out.

"It's hard to find the time nowadays, we always seem to be busy with something. Maybe someday though." Thomas figured that made a lot of sense, when you're touring round the states as your job, recording music and attending events during the time in-between, it must be pretty difficult to actually get anything else done.

Newt pushed through the doors into the rehearsal room, holding it open for Thomas to follow him through. The band were all sat around Minho’s drum kit as he played a simple beat, showing Teresa how to do it as she sat next to him. She looked over at them once they entered the room, a huge smile on her face.

"Tom, you should have a try!" Thomas shook his head, trying to turn the offer down and instead choosing to sit down on a sofa on the other side of the room whilst Newt shut the door behind them.

"Nah i'm alright, you go ahead." He felt the sofa dip down a little and looked over to see that Newt had come to sit down next to him, a guitar on his lap that he set to tuning. Teresa sent him a questioning look, glancing between the two of them but when he didn't say anything she just shrugged and went back to talking to Minho, switching seats with him to try and play out a beat on the drums.

"You don't play?" Thomas snapped his gaze over to Newt when he asked him, having gotten a little caught up in watching the others.

"I used to play a bit of guitar when I was younger,” Thomas told him, “I never really got the hang of it though." Newt nodded, looking up from the guitar strings.

"I can teach you a little if you want?" Thomas wasn't sure what to say to that, he really didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of any of the band, they were trained musicians after all. None of them seemed to be paying them any attention though, joking around with Teresa on the other side of the room, so he nodded his answer and a small smile spread across Newt's face.

Newt passed Thomas the guitar, moving a little closer to him on the sofa so that he could position it better in his hands. Thomas tensed as Newt leant close next to him, reaching round to move Thomas’ right hand into position, stopping for a few seconds once he'd gotten hold of his hand. Thomas tried not to shiver as Newt's warm breath spread across his neck when he spoke, focusing all his attention on the guitar strings instead to take his mind off it.

"You're right handed, yeah?" Thomas nodded, a little bit too embarrassed by their proximity to get the words out but Newt didn't seem to mind, leaning slightly against his back so that he could reach across him for Thomas' other hand to help him position it at the neck of the guitar.

"Okay so you want to put your fingers like this." Newt told him, moving Thomas' fingers into position on the strings and Thomas didn't know what else to do other than to let him, focusing more on watching the concentration Newt had on his face more than what he's actually doing. He was chewing on his bottom lip as he moved Thomas' fingers to the right frets, eyes squinted slightly as he focused - Thomas had to stop himself from smiling at the sight. "Then you strum it."

Thomas is snapped out of his daze enough to do just that, strumming down on the strings with his right hand in order to play the cord. It sounded pretty good to him, but he still looked over to Newt for confirmation, who had moved to sit cross legged on the sofa facing him. Thomas tried not to let it show how disappointed he was at the space that was now between them.

"Like that?" Newt nodded, looking up at him with a small smile on his face, head tilted a little to the side.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Thomas tried not to blush at the intensity of Newt's stare, looking back down at the guitar when he didn't look away. Thankfully he was saved from having to say something when Alby came over, plucking the guitar from his hands, putting the strap over his shoulders.

It pulled Thomas out of his daze enough to notice the chanting going on around him, Minho playing a drum roll as both him, Sonya and Teresa shouted over at Alby. "Play it - Play it - Play it!" Alby laughed as he adjusted the strap, stepping into the middle of the room.

"Alright, alright - calm down!" He told them, the others stopping to listen. Newt moved forward in his seat, leaning with his arms against his knees to listen. Alby cleared his throat, starting to play a tune on the guitar that Thomas vaguely recognised. "Anyway, here's Wonderwall."

The laughter that erupted around him was enough to make Thomas forget all about the awkwardness with Newt and just enjoy himself, leaning back in his seat as Alby continued to play.

It seemed to pass by in a flash, but soon it was getting close to nine and the band needed to be getting on stage, everyone piling out the room in a rush to get to there. Thomas and Teresa trailed along at the back behind them, not wanting to get in the way as they grabbed instruments and ear pieces, passing things between them in a mad dash.

As the band left them to get into their position to go onto stage, Thomas called over to Newt. He wasn't entirely sure why he did it, Newt turning back to face him, shooting him a questioning look as he did.

"Good luck!" A huge grin split out over Newt's face and he shook his head in amusement, backing up to his position under the stage after the others.

"You're going to love it, Tommy!" And if his chest tightened a little bit at the words then he's the only one that knew about it, Newt disappearing under the stage to the screams from the crowd.

 

 ** _teresaagnes:_** Me and **@tomiswckd** have a pretty sick view for # _ScorchTour_ tonight, thanks for choosing us for the backstage passes **@newtisaacs**

 **_thelastairbrenda, tomiswckd_ ** _and **56 other people** like this post_

 

> **_thelastairbrenda:_** I'm insanely jealous of you right now, curse my damn immune system, he better be having fun in my place :(
> 
> **_teresaagnes:_** Oh don't worry, he's definitely having a good time ;)
> 
> * * *

Newt didn't think he'd ever get used to the feeling of stepping out onto the stage, thousands of people you didn't even know screaming your name. It was madness really, completely incomprehensible to him, but he wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

Starting the concert from underneath the stage felt a little odd, he'd actually been a little reluctant of using the trap doors when they'd been planning the staging a few months back, but now - standing under the stage with the rest of the band ready to rise up through the floor, he couldn't help but admit he was actually pretty damn excited, the strap of his bass hanging reassuringly around his neck.

He knew the instant the lights went off in the arena because suddenly the excited chatter turned to cheering, the sound ringing out around him and causing a grin to spread across his face. Newt closed his eyes for a few seconds, just taking in the sounds surrounding him. He could take the negative things said about them in the press, the ridicule he got from people he barely knew, none of it really mattered to him other than this. This is what he played for, what all of them played for.

Newt took a deep breath, letting the air out slowly and opened his eyes; he looked over at Sonya just a few feet away from him, fiddling with the microphone in her hands. She caught his gaze and turned to give him a thumbs up as he adjusted the strap of his bass. Despite her nervous habit she looked just as excited as he felt and he wondered if any of them would ever get used to this.

It was amazing really that they'd managed to get this far, never in a million years would he have expected them to get a record deal, let alone be on tour, but here they were.

The cheering from the crowds only got louder when Minho started the drum beat, Newt turned on his panel to watch as Minho's part of the staging started to rise up through a cloud of smoke, kicking off the start of the tour officially. If it looked that great from beneath the stage, Newt knew the fans out there were going to love it - at least he really hoped so.

Newt watched as the stage moved into place and the smoke started to fill the underneath of the stage, blocking his view of Alby and Gally behind him. He turned back to face the front, taking a deep breath as he tried to drown out the noise of the crowd around him and listened to the music through his earpiece, getting ready to come in when his part started.

There was a sudden jolt beneath him and the floor below started to move upwards, making him jump a little, no matter how many times they'd practiced this it never managed not to catch him off guard. Newt shot one last look over at Sonya and then jumped in with the bass line of the song, the floor stopping with another jolt when he reached the top and he was flooded with the intensity of the lights, both from the stage lighting and the phones of the people in the crowd.

It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, but soon he could see the faces of the people closest to them, already jumping to the beat of the music.

Newt lost himself in it, Alby and Gally coming in with the guitars and soon Sonya was up on stage too, belting out the lyrics to their first ever single, the noise from the crowd only getting louder as they joined in with her. If it wasn't for the earpiece he had in, Newt didn't think he'd even be able to hear the music with how loud they were singing, the thought just making him smile even more.

If he was being honest with himself, Newt never really remembered much from their concerts, mind focused solely on what he was doing, only stopping to let himself take it in during the breaks between songs where they talked with the crowd. Most of the time he couldn't even remember playing, the songs becoming more of a muscle memory than anything.

As they played the last notes to one of Newt's favourite songs on the set list he looked over at the crowd, the intensity of the lights always making it a little hard to see, but after taking a few seconds for his eyes to adjust once again he could see the crowd perfectly. He remembered what he'd told Thomas, how the vastness of the arena really did make you feel small and now was no different, the thousands of people stood before him serving to make him feel as tiny as an ant, but larger than life both at the same time.

He was breathing pretty heavily by the time the crowd calmed down a little bit, his sweat soaked shirt sticking to his chest. He knew he should probably feel a gross but he didn't really care, a grin spreading across his face from the reaction of the crowd, waving at some fans in the front row from his position at the front of the stage.

"How are we doing California?!" Sonya yelled into the microphone and the crowd screamed, which they'd come to decide was a good thing, even if it did feel weird.

Newt used the time that Sonya spent talking to the crowd to have a swig of water from the bottle near his mic stand, revelling in the cold that rushed over him. He was half tempted to pour the rest of the water over his head but he refrained himself, taking another long drink and throwing it down to the floor again.

Newt scanned over the crowd, searching for Thomas and Teresa, finding them a little off the left over on Alby's side of the stage. He wasn't sure what it was about him, but he liked Thomas. Teresa too, it'd been a pleasant surprise meeting them, since they'd been expecting some young teenagers to win the passes, so having people their own age that they could joke around with was so much more preferable - at least in his opinion. Not that he wasn't grateful for their younger fans, he really was, he was just never sure how to act around them.

He tried to convince himself that was the main reason he was happy they'd been chosen, and not because Thomas was probably one of the best looking people he'd seen in a long time. Newt had figured out a long time ago that he wasn't exactly straight, having an interest in both guys and girls, but that didn't mean he was all that comfortable with it yet. No-one else knew, not even Sonya, and if he had it his way they never would find out.

He knew how the media was, knew that they'd be all over him if he ever came out and he couldn't do that to the band. If there was any negative backlash on them because of him he didn't think he could live with himself - everything they'd worked for would be gone.

But that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate Thomas from afar.

Newt wondered if maybe Thomas had noticed him staring in his direction because he suddenly turned away from talking to Teresa to look up at the stage, catching his eye and giving him a wave. Newt huffed out a short laugh and waved back, shaking his head as everyone in the crowd around Thomas starting waving at him too.

He didn't have much time to dwell on Thomas though, because soon a member of the stage crew was coming over and bringing him his acoustic guitar. He had a momentary memory block where he forgot what he was meant to be using it for but he pulled the strap of his bass over his shoulder and thanked the man anyway, switching over to the acoustic.

"We know this isn't on the set list officially, but Newt wrote a new song on the tour bus last week and we thought we'd let you guys be the first ones to hear it!" Newt suddenly remembered what was going on as he made his way over to the centre of the stage, thanking the woman that brought a stool over for him to sit on next to Sonya. The woman shot him a warm smile and patted him on the shoulder before rushing off the stage.

Newt plugged the guitar into the amp near the front of the stage, reaching out to high five the people in the crowd just near it before settling down onto the chair. He plucked the strings a few times to make sure everything was working properly, positioning himself and the guitar comfortably on the seat and waiting for Sonya to take the empty seat next to him.

"I'm going to assume that the shouting means you're up for it. It's a little rusty, so bear with us." The cheering died down as Sonya took her seat on the stool next to him, angling both the microphone stands so that they were at a better level for them, nudging Newt with her shoulder as she settled on the chair.

Newt took one last glance over at Thomas, who was watching the two of them with interest and he smiled, looking over the whole of the crowd, revelling in the silence of the arena before he started playing. They hadn't had much time to practice but Newt already knew the chords and Sonya must have been memorising the lyrics because she hadn't brought any on with her, joining in when he got to the first verse.

Newt had been worried about how the crowds were going to react to the song, it was still really new and it was different from what they usually did - different wasn't always a particularly good thing when it came to music - but despite his worries it looked like it was going down well, a large number of the audience having turned on the lights on their phones and were swaying them along to the music.

This felt a lot different to anything they'd ever done on stage before, at least to a crowd this large. Most of their music was pretty fast paced and energetic, but the slower, calmer tone of this song felt good, was quite relaxing for a change. Newt kept having to glance up every so often, worried that the quiet from the crowd meant that they weren't enjoying it, but every time he was met with a sea of happy faces, people swaying from side to side and he knew that wasn't the case.

It seemed like no time had passed at all but soon the song had ended, the crowd had started cheering again and Newt felt a wave of happiness hit him, grinning as he got up from the chair on stage. Minho, Alby and Gally were still watching them from the back of the stage, Minho giving him a thumbs up when he turned to look at the three of them. Newt returned the gesture, huffing out a laugh as the stage crew came back on to switch his instruments around again.

Just as he was about to turn back to the crowd he looked up, his gaze catching on the large screen just above the stage, showing live video footage of both them and the crowd for the whole arena to see. It was a weird feeling, being able to watch himself and the others up on stage, knowing that people even right at the back could see exactly what they were doing all times.

He thought he would have hated it, had been dreading it on the first tour since people would instantly know by the look on his face that he'd fucked up. Now though he thought it was pretty cool, mostly because it meant he could get a better look at the crowd, the ones further back at least and know that they were enjoying themselves just as much as the ones who were up at the front.

"So what do you guys think?" Sonya asked the crowd, her voice reverberating round the room, almost instantly being drowned out by the screams of the crowd in front of them. Newt kept his gaze fixed on the screen, unable to contain his smile as he saw people clapping, others jumping up and down in excitement at something he'd performed - something he'd _created_ \- he didn't want that feeling of happiness to ever go away.

"Newt? You still with us buddy?" Newt was snapped out of his daze by Alby who'd gotten back into position at the front of the stage. Newt turned back round to see that both him and Sonya seemed to be trying not to laugh at him, amused expressions on their faces.

"Sorry." He apologised, trying to stop himself from blushing but failing miserably. "I zoned out for a second there."

"He was probably just checking out my arms on the screen." Minho decided, flexing his arm muscles from his seat behind the drum kit, earning some loud cheers from the crowd which just caused Newt to roll his eyes, shaking his head as he turned back towards the front of the stage.

"You wish." He told him, the laughter coming from the rest of the band serving to make him shoot Minho a grin, who just flipped him off in annoyance. Sonya was watching them all with amusement from the front of the stage when he looked back, eyebrows raised. "Right, sorry, I'm done, you can carry on now."

"Apologies for my idiot brother, this is why you should never work with family, guys." If Newt hadn't been so far away he would have reached over to hit her on the arm, but as it was he just glared at her jokingly, causing Sonya to stick her tongue out at him.

God, he was glad to be back here. This was where he belonged.

 

 ** _callmesonya:_** Thank you for such an amazing first night of the _#ScorchTour,_ you guys rocked!

_[See attached photo]_

**_teresaagnes, bennyboy, iamalby_** and **_21,006_** people liked this post

 

> **_meanhoe:_** THANK YOU CALI, WE LOVE YOU
> 
> **_callmesonya:_** Hey **_@iamalby_** , I think you're blinking in the photo
> 
> **_iamalby:_** You just had to go and point it out, no one would have noticed!
> 
> **_captaingally:_** It's pretty damn obvious, Al
> 
> **_iamalby:_** I see how it is, ganging up on me. You're with me, right **_@newtisaacs_**?
> 
> **_newtisaacs:_** I'm not even getting involved
> 
> * * *

Thomas had to admit, he'd been a little sceptical about whether or not he was going to like the concert, even though he had listened to the music already, when going to see someone you didn't really know there was always the risk of not enjoying it.

Newt had been right earlier though - he loved it.

The music was great, exactly the sort of stuff he usually listened to; all of them played brilliantly too and Thomas found himself trying to pick up the lyrics at the chorus to sing along with the people around him - but if Teresa's laughter was anything to go by he wasn't doing as well as he thought he was.

Thomas was man enough to admit he'd spent the majority of the sets first half watching Newt play, he was pretty sure half the audience had been doing the same thing if the amount of people screaming his name was anything to go by. It was just so hard not to, the way Newt seemed to get caught up in the music, moving round the stage as if this was something he'd been doing his whole life and not just a few years.

But then everything had quieted down towards the middle and just Newt and Sonya had sat in the middle of the stage, an acoustic guitar their only accompaniment and Thomas would be lying to himself if he said he hadn't been impressed.

He'd known Newt must have been a great musician, that much was pretty evident, but the fact that he wrote the band's songs as well was completely new information to him, maybe he should have listened more when Teresa was telling him about the band on the drive over.

Thomas didn't think it was fair that this much talent could be condensed into just one person, the song - even though it was very different from the rest of the band's music - was beautiful, and Thomas wondered not for the first time that night if there was anything Newt couldn't do?

The rest of the concert had passed by in a bit of a blur and soon Teresa was tugging on his arm, pulling him through the crowds to get to the large double doors just to the right of the stage. They had to show their passes to the two women stood at the doors but they were soon let through, the doors muffling the sound in the empty corridor emphasising the ringing in his ears.

"That was amazing!" She exclaimed, spinning round to face him, a huge grin on her face, jumping a little on the spot. Thomas couldn't help but smile back at her happy demeanour, nodding in response.

Teresa' smile only seemed to get brighter as she rushed forward to pull him into a hug, knocking him back a step from the force of it. "What was that for?" He asked, hugging her back.

"Just to say thank you for coming with me, i'm really glad you did." Thomas let go, Teresa stepping back out of his hold seconds later, the smile never leaving her face.

"I'm glad I came, I’ve had a lot of fun."

"See!" Teresa told him, poking him in the chest. "I _told_ you they're good." Thomas huffed out a laugh, knocking her hand away. He'd never doubted if they were going to be good or not, Teresa usually had a surprisingly good taste in music, if he was honest he'd been more sceptical about the actual band members than their music.

He found he got on with all of them really well - maybe not Gally quite so much, he hadn't quite figured out how he fit into the group - but he especially liked Newt and Minho. Part of him hoped they'd be able to keep in touch with them after the concert although he knew that was pretty unlikely, they must have much more interesting friends than him already.

The cheering from outside the room had started to calm down now, music from the speakers starting to fill the room as people left, leaving Thomas wondering what they were supposed to be doing.

"So, where too now?" He asked, hoping Teresa knew where they were meant to be going. No one had mentioned anything to him about after the concert, so he'd just assumed they went home. He hoped that wasn't the case and they'd get to meet up with the band again, at least so they could say goodbye properly.

Teresa looked a little lost when he glanced over at her, looking down the hall with a small frown on her face, chewing on her bottom lip. "Teresa?" He asked, confused as to what was wrong.

"Sonya said to meet them by the edge of the stage but I don't know how to get there..." She turned back to face him, fiddling with the pass round her neck. Thomas looked around the hall for a few seconds before it registered that he'd been here before, only it had been much busier then.

"It's this way." He told her, gesturing over to the curtains off to their right as he headed that way.

"How do you even know that?" She asked, following him as he pushed through the curtains and back into the control room he'd passed through earlier that day with Newt. He nodded to Jeff as he passed him, the other man waving to him quickly before turning back to his work.

"Newt took me up here earlier." She nodded at that, a small smile spreading across her face. He knew that look, she did it when she knew something he didn't and it never failed _not_ to bug him.  Thomas frowned, nudging her with his shoulder. "What?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it." He wanted to get her to explain because part of him _was_ worrying about it, but the chance was taken from him at the sounds of laughter coming from their right. Thomas turned to see who it was, watching as the band came into view, his worry all but forgotten as Newt stumbled out from beneath the stage, almost tripping over a cable that was laying across the floor.

"You guys were amazing!" Teresa shouted over to them as they appeared once again, all of them turning to look over at the two of them. Thomas tried not to laugh as Teresa's gaze became fixed on Minho, her eyes widened a little in shock at the sight of him shirtless, pouring the contents of his water down his back.

Not that he could blame her, it was definitely a great view.

Thomas nudged her with his shoulder when they came over, snapping her out of her daze, a blush rising on her cheeks as she looked away from Minho towards the others. Sonya was grinning at them, bouncing a little as she came and gave Teresa a hug, which she gladly returned.

"You think so?" She asked, pulling away from Teresa to hug Thomas too. He was a little surprised by the embrace but hugged her back nevertheless, smiling and shaking his head when Newt mouthed _'sorry'_ over her shoulder as he came to join them.

"Yeah, you were all brilliant." Thomas told her as she let go of him, Newt coming to stop by his side, running a hand through his hair to stop it from sticking to his forehead. Thomas didn't understand how all of them still seemed so energetic, he would have been exhausted by now, but he guessed they were probably just still high of the adrenaline of it all.

"I think this calls for a celebration!" Sonya decided, passing her microphone off to a crew member as they came past, the grin never leaving her face. "You in?" It took him a minute to realise that Sonya was asking them, surprised by the offer. He'd assumed that would have been their cue to leave, let them celebrate just the five of them, but apparently not.

He glanced over at Teresa who was looking up at him expectantly, but he just shrugged. "Hey, it's your birthday, might as well go have some fun." Teresa was quick to take up the offer and agreed to go with them, so naturally Thomas went along too. Not that he was complaining, how many people can say they've been out with a famous band, right?

"Alright then, first round's on me!" Minho called out as they left the room, Thomas hanging back a little with Alby and Newt as Sonya hooked her arm with Teresa's, pulling her to walk up front with them.

Minho left them when they entered the bar, Teresa and Gally following him to go and order the groups drinks. The bar itself was pretty quiet - much quieter than what Thomas had been expecting them to choose - but he figured that was probably a good thing, at least that way they'd be able to hang out without fans bombarding them every five minutes. At least he hoped so.

Alby found a round booth in the corner of the room for them to sit at, Thomas sliding into the seat next to Sonya, Newt sitting down next to him. Everyone had seemed to calm down a little now, the energy they'd gotten from the performance starting to wear off as they relaxed against the seats, waiting for the others to get back.

Most of the group had gotten changed before they came out, wanting to wear something a little more comfortable and smelt a bit better. Newt was now wearing a large hoodie which seemed to drown him, his fingers only just poking out the ends of the tattered sleeves. His hair was a complete mess too, he'd run his fingers through it more times than Thomas could count since they'd left the arena, the strands sticking up all over the place and making him look like he'd just rolled out of bed.

It was kind of adorable.

"I've been wondering." Sonya spoke up, turning to face him a little on the seat as she drew him out of his thoughts - he really hoped he hadn't been staring again. "Whose older, you or Teresa?"

"I think it's Teresa." Alby told him, he was leant back against the seats, arms folded across his chest. "But they both think it's you." He pointed at Newt and Sonya, who were both looking up at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Thomas huffed out a laugh, shaking his head which just caused Newt to frown.

"Well we're twins, so technically we're the same age." Newt let out an annoyed groan next to him, sinking down a little in his seat. He was pouting and Thomas couldn't help but smile despite Newt's obvious annoyance. "What?"

Newt let out a sigh, shaking his head. "Nothing, I just owe Minho $20." Sonya let out a short laugh next to him, leaning forward so she could talk to Newt, a smug grin on her face.

"I told you not to bet on it!" Newt just rolled his eyes, flipping her off as he sulked in his seat. It did nothing to curb Sonya’s happiness about the situation though, if anything it just made her laugh even more.

Thomas was curious about Newt and Sonya’s relationship, if he hadn’t known better he’d have thought they were actually related. They acted like they’d known each other their entire lives, seeming to have a similar relationship to him and Teresa, but he knew that wasn’t the case, since Teresa told him Newt was adopted.

That was something else he wanted to ask about, wanted to know how Newt came to be in America in the first place, what had happened to his parents. He knew it wasn’t his place to ask though, he’d known Newt for only a few hours, he doubted he’d be okay with telling him his whole life story.

"Hey Newt, looks like you're not the only one who can't drink yet!" Minho snapped Thomas out of his thoughts, directing his attention to the tray of drinks he'd just brought to their table. As Thomas caught the glass of coke Minho slid his way he noticed Newt watching him, a frown on his face.

"What?" He asked cautiously, worried he might have done something wrong, even though he had no idea what it could have been, they'd barely just sat down.

"I thought you said it was your birthday?" Newt asked which caused Thomas to relax a little bit, shaking his head with a smile, he could see where Newt's confusion was coming from.

"It's Teresa's birthday, not mine." That just seemed to confuse Newt even more, his frown only worsening as he looked over to Teresa and back at him.

"But I thought...?"

"Tom was born the day after me." Teresa explained, cutting Newt off as she too sat down at the table, Minho and Gally following after her causing the others to move closer together. Thomas tried not to think too much about the feel of Newt's leg up against his, especially not when Newt's sister was sat right next to him.

Thomas cleared his throat, taking a swig of his drink. "Yeah, by like five minutes." Teresa just grinned, taking the beer Minho passed her, his arm round her shoulders on the back of the seat. Thomas frowned a little at that, unsure as to how he felt about Minho sitting so close to his sister but he tried to ignore it, it wasn’t his place to say anything, especially when Teresa seemed to be enjoying herself so much.

"Still makes me five minutes older than you, Tom." Minho snorted out a laugh beside her, the smug smile on Teresa's face just caused Thomas to roll his eyes, sitting back more in his seat.

"I'm guessing this is a conversation you have a lot then?" Newt asked, leaning a little closer to him to talk as the others started up a conversation around them.

"You have no idea." Thomas muttered under his breath, eliciting a laugh from Newt. He could feel him shaking by his side, the movement causing him to laugh too, a small blush rising on his cheeks. He glanced up to see Teresa watching him, a knowing look on her face but he just tried to ignore it, taking another swig of his drink instead.

It wasn't long before the group started to split off, Minho dragging Teresa off to the other side of the bar to play a game of pool, Sonya and Alby claiming the second table. Gally stayed with them for a while, but twenty minutes into their game and he left too, working as umpire to stop Minho from trying to cheat, if the playful arguing between the two of them was anything to go by.

"Do you two not get along or something? You and Gally?" Newt shook his head, turning his gaze from the others to look at Thomas. He'd expected Newt to move away from him once he wasn't squashed between the others but he was still sat as close as before, with apparently no intention of changing that.

"It's not that we don't get along, he's just very..." Newt trailed off, frowning as he seemed to think about what he wanted to say. "Opinionated? He kind of has his ideals that he likes to stick with and I don't always agree with them." Thomas had to admit he didn't really understand how the group all fit together. Sure you had Newt and Sonya - the siblings - and Minho seemed to be the closest to them out of the others, but Alby and Gally didn't quite fit right. At least not to his eyes.

Newt had gone back to watching them on the other side of the bar, Minho was showing Teresa how to best hit the ball whilst Gally rolled his eyes at the two of them from the other end of the table. Alby was either terrible at pool or he seemed to be letting Sonya win, much to her apparent annoyance. Maybe he was wrong, maybe they did all work together. "Also I think he's still pissed at me for changing the set list last minute."

Thomas snorted out a laugh, glancing back over at Newt. "You must have changed something big for him to still be mad about it, right?"

"You know the acoustic song in the middle?" Thomas nodded his reply, that had been one of his favourite parts of the whole set, even if the rest of the music was more his taste. Both Newt and Sonya had really been in their element, the two of them working together seamlessly, as if they'd been doing so their entire lives. The shocked smile on Newt's face at the crowd’s reaction to it was just a bonus. "I finished the song last week and we decided to add it to the set, he wasn't too happy about it."

"He doesn't look like he's happy about _most_ things." Thomas couldn't help but smile as Newt started laughing, his whole body shaking with it as his head tipped back.

Thomas tried not to stare, he really did but apparently his ability to stop himself from being a complete and utter creep disappeared when Newt was there and he just couldn't tear his eyes away. He was thankful that he had at least some semblance of self-control that by the time Newt had calmed down, looking back over at him he was able to glance away, the blush rising on his cheeks the only thing giving him away.

"Well you'd be right on that one, he is a grumpy bugger most of the time, but he's family." Thomas was struck for the second time that night to ask Newt about his family, about what happened to them but he held himself back. It really was none of his business, no matter how curious he was about it.

"That must be nice." He finally decided on, noting the confusion in Newt's gaze. "To be able to call your friends family, I mean. I don't really have that." Sure, Aris was a great friend, they had a lot of fun together but he wasn't someone he'd class as family, at least not right now. Brenda was probably the closest thing he had to that; she'd been there since they were all just kids, used to be around their house more than she was her own. But still he always had that nagging feeling that she was just Teresa's friend and not his.

“Thomas!” He was dragged out of his thoughts by Teresa’s shouting, looking over to see her jumping up and down excitedly next to the table. He tried to ignore the sad look Newt was giving him and focused his attention on her instead, eyebrows raised in confusion. “Karaoke. You up for it?” Thomas groaned, sinking down in his seat a little.

“Do I have to?” Teresa nodded, laughing at his lack of enthusiasm.

“I probably should have phrased that differently. We’re doing Karaoke, come on!” When Thomas didn’t move Teresa let out a frustrated sigh, reaching straight over Newt to grab hold of Thomas’ arm and drag him out from his seat at the booth.

Newt didn’t have any time to get out of the way before Thomas was having to clamber over him, Teresa’s strong grip on his arm not giving him much choice but to comply. If he hadn’t been a little embarrassed by their close proximity before he definitely was now, having to squeeze past as Newt pushed himself back against the chairs to give him more room.

Thomas let out a small squeak of surprise as he tripped on Newt’s foot which was still stretched out under the table, falling promptly into his lap. He could feel the blush rising on his cheeks as Newt’s hands fell to his hips, helping him to get up and over him.

“I’m so sorry.” Newt didn’t seem to mind though, laughing it off as he let go, climbing out of the booth after him.

“Don’t worry about it.” Thomas didn’t have much chance to reply - he wasn’t altogether sure what he would have said anyway - before Teresa was pulling on his arm to take him over to the others, who were now all gathered around the small box stage in the corner of the bar.

“Newt, come on!” Sonya called over from her position on the stage, waving Newt over to join them. Thomas turned to see Newt trailing along after them, bringing his drink with him, Sonya holding out the microphone for him once he arrived.

Thomas watched in amusement as Newt reluctantly took the microphone, frowning up at his sister. “Please tell me you’re joking?” At least Newt seemed as unenthusiastic about this as he was.

“Nope!” Teresa and Sonya both spoke at the same time, Teresa throwing Thomas the other microphone, which he almost dropped on the floor. Newt sighed, passing his drink over to Minho as he climbed up onto the stage, Sonya hugging him as he did.

Teresa grabbed hold of his arm again, pulling him up onto the stage to join them. “Wait, we’re all going at once?” He asked, Teresa nodded as they took their place on the other side of the stage in front of the small TV screen.

“Sibling Battle, Tom.” She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, gesturing over to Newt and Sonya. “Us vs them.”

“You know they’re going to win, right?” Sonya let out a snort of laughter from the other side of the stage, the microphone making it echo around the room.

“We’ll go easy on you.” She nudged Newt on the shoulder, getting his attention from where he’d been setting up their mic stand. “Right, Newt?” Newt just shrugged, shooting them both a grin - he was obviously getting more into it now.

“Can’t make any promises.” Thomas glared jokingly at the two of them, which just caused them to laugh.

“You guys ready?” Minho asked from in front of the stage, Thomas looked over at him to see he had his phone held up in front of him. He felt his nerves kicking in as he realised Minho was recording them, turning to fiddle with the microphone stand to try and calm himself down.

“I’ll be ready as soon as you turn off that bloody camera.” Newt told him, but Minho just smiled, shaking his head.

“So not going to happen, Newt. This is going on YouTube, the world needs to see it.” Newt just sighed, defeated, obviously knowing better than to argue with Minho on small matters such as this. Thomas wished he'd maybe tried just a little bit harder to convince him though, being embarrassed in front of a few people wasn't too bad but potentially thousands of them? He just really hoped Aris never found the video.

The music's starting before he even had chance to prepare himself, the lyrics flashing up on the screen to a song he'd never actually heard before but he tried his best despite that. He knew it must be a pretty poor attempt because Alby and Gally look like they're trying their hardest not to laugh every time it's his part - Gally laughing like that was not something he'd expected to see any time soon.

Thomas knows he's a terrible singer, will try to refrain from it unless he's alone or at home with his family, so he has no doubt they're going to lose. Teresa still seemed to be trying quite hard though, her singing voice was pretty average at best, but even then it was a damn sight better than his.

Thomas isn't even surprised that Newt and Sonya beat them by a landslide, earning more than double the points they had. Minho had to shut off his recording he was laughing so hard, only just having caught the end of the song before he had to sit down. Teresa didn't seem to care that she'd lost, just went to go and watch the video from Minho's phone, the two of them in fits of laughter over it together.

"No hard feelings, hey Tommy?" His attentions brought back over to Newt by the hand on his shoulder and that nickname - he thought maybe he'd misheard him earlier but there it was again, clear as day. It was strange, no one had called him that since he was much younger, but somehow he didn't mind; it sounded kind of nice coming from Newt, actually.

Maybe it was the accent?

"None at all." Newt smiled, squeezing his shoulder gently before letting go, pushing the sleeves of his hoodie up to his elbows. Thomas found himself tracing the pattern of the tattoos on his arm again, following the lines as they travelled up and under the fabric. That was something else he was curious to ask about, Newt didn't exactly seem the type for tattoos; Minho and Gally, definitely, but not Newt. He was about to bring it up when Minho called over to them, Newt hopping down off the stage to join the rest of the group.

Thomas followed, his earlier thoughts moving to the back of his mind as a hand reached through the group to grab him, pulling him to the front of the pack to stand between Minho and Newt. "What are we doing?" He asked, looking down at Minho's phone as he brought up the camera setting.

"Group photo, obviously." Minho held the camera up in front of him at arm's length, the screen not quite fitting everyone in. "Guys, you might want to budge in a bit." Thomas went to take a step closer to Minho but ended up being all but pushed there, Newt falling against his side as Gally and Alby moved in closer to get in frame.

Newt didn't seem at all affected by it, looping an arm around Thomas' waist in what he assumed was an attempt to not fall over. He was glad for the warmth of the bar making everyone look slightly flushed, so that hopefully his blush wasn't too noticeable when he put an arm round Newt's shoulders so it wasn't crushed between them.

Thomas wasn’t sure if he’d smiled for the photograph, he wasn’t sure if he’d even looked at the camera at all because all he could think about was the feel of Newt’s fingers burning through his shirt - the way the ends of Newt’s hair were tickling the back of his arm, sending shivers across his skin.

He knew the moment the picture had been taken though, because suddenly the warmth was gone as Newt stepped out of his hold, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jumper. Thomas tried not to feel disappointed, instead focusing in on Minho’s phone as he pushed it into his view line. He was relieved to say the least when he saw the photo, noticing how Minho and Newt were the only one's actually looking at the camera. Everyone else was too busy making stupid hand gestures and pulling faces that they'd missed the shot, making the fact that Thomas was watching Newt much less evident.

"None of you know how to take a decent photo, I swear." Minho shook his head in annoyance, stuffing his phone back in his pocket.

"It's not that bad!" Teresa told him, grabbing hold of Minho's arm to drag him over to the other side of the room. "Now come on, I've got to beat you at pool."

It was way past midnight by the time they left the bar, the cold air outside a welcome feeling as the wind rushed past him, cooling him down instantly. He was only mildly jealous of Newt's hoodie when he stepped outside a few seconds later, pulling the sleeves down over his hands and stuffing them into his pockets to keep warm against the breeze.

Thomas hung back as Teresa went to go and say goodbye to the rest of the band, giving each of them a hug before they went to leave. She even hugged Gally, who looked more than a little shocked but hugged her back none the less, patting her on the back a few seconds later to get her to let go.

"He's not exactly the hugging type." Thomas snorted out a laugh, looking away from the others to see that Newt had come to join him. "Don't let her take it personally."

"I'll be sure to let her know." Newt nodded, standing a little closer as a shiver came over him, arm brushing against Thomas'. "Hey, urm... Could I maybe get your number? You know so that we could keep in touch?" He wasn't really sure why he said it, regretted it almost as soon as the words came out of his mouth - Of course Newt wouldn't want to keep in touch with him, it was a stupid idea. He was about to try and cover it up with a joke when Newt nodded, holding out his hand.

"Yeah pass it here, I’ll put my number in there." Thomas was a little bit in shock to respond but he fumbled in his jacket pocket to find his phone, unlocking it as he passed it over to Newt who accepted it with a smile, typing something in before he passed it back over. "I just sent myself a message so now you'll have my number and I’ll have yours."

"Thanks." He knew he probably could have said something better but that was all he could get out, staring down at the new number in his phone.

"No problem." Someone was calling Newt's name as he stuffed his phone back in his pocket, unable to keep the small smile off his face. He looked back up when Newt moved away from him to see him backing up towards the rest of the group, all of whom were heading off back down the street towards the arena. "I guess that's my cue to leave. Goodnight, Thomas."

Thomas waved after him, letting out a content sigh as Newt disappeared off around the corner. "Night, Newt."

 

 **_OFFICIALFLAREINFECTED:  _ ** _Uploaded one new video_

 

> **_Karaoke Battle - Siblings Edition_ **
> 
> Post-concert celebrations called for drinks at the bar + drunken karaoke, so obviously singing battles were necessary. I present to you:
> 
> Newt + Sonya _vs_ Thomas + Teresa (the newest members of our flare infected crew)
> 
> **_Warning:_ ** _Thomas can’t sing. At all. Seriously it’s so bad._

**_Views:_ ** _22,311_

 

 ** _meanhoe:_** Had a lot of fun with **@tomiswckd** and **@teresaagnes** last night, hope everyone enjoyed the concert, bring on the rest of the # _ScorchTour!_

_[See attached photo]_

**_newtisaacs, tomiswckd, captaingally_** and ** _23,452_** others liked this post

 

> **_teresaagnes:_** Thanks for letting us tag along!
> 
> **_iamalby:_** You guys are welcome back anytime, it was great having you here
> 
> **_tomiswckd:_** **@iamalby** if you say that, you'll never get her to leave

 

 ** _tomiswckd_** _has three new followers_ :

 

> **_callmesonya, meanhoe_** and **_newtisaacs_**

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my Newmas big bang fic!  
> This is something i've been working on for a few months now so I really hope you've enjoyed Part 1 - I know i've enjoyed writing it! Please leave your comments and let me know what you thought, it'd be cool to here what you guys think is going to happen next. Parts 2 and 3 should be up before the end of the year if everything goes to plan, but don't hold me to that just in case.  
> You can also come talk to me about my fic or anything The Maze Runner related over on my **[tumblr](http://www.newtttheglue.tumblr.com)**  
>  But yeah, thank you so much for reading!


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